Hypothalamic gene network dysfunction is associated with cognitive decline and body weight loss in Alzheimer’s disease mice

Recent studies, both clinical and experimental, indicate that many neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s disease (AD) often display coexisting metabolic dysfunctions, which may exacerbate neurological symptoms. The hypothalamus is a brain region highly involved in maintaining metabolic and other homeostatic processes and is known to be involved in the etiology of AD, although the role of hypothalamic dysfunction in the onset, progression, and severity of AD is poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrate that our new model of genetic diversity in AD, the AD-BXDs, exhibits non-cognitive symptoms consistent with hypothalamic dysfunction and examined hypothalamic bulk RNA sequencing data in the AD-BXD panel to investigate how the AD transgene impacts gene expression profiles in the hypothalamus. Mostly notably, we identified strong neuroinflammatory signatures from the hypothalamus in the AD-BXDs as early as six months of age. A functionally unknown WGCNA module showed correlation to female body weight and contextual fear acquisition. Eigengene expression of microglial/macrophagic modules and their hub gene expressions were correlated to cognitive phenotypes. From these analyses, we nominated Plek and Laptm5 as new targets to attenuate neuroinflammation in AD.