CD44 and Alzheimer disease: B2M (cALD Z-score = 3.81 and AD Z-score = 5.35) serves as an inflammatory marker in the CNS (Liu et al., 2014; Topçiu-Shufta et al., 2016), and CD44 (cALD Z-score = 4.67 and AD Z-score = 4.96) is positively correlated with apoptosis and inflammation by regulating cytokine expression (McKallip et al., 2002).