BHLHE40 and Alzheimer disease: Further analysis of the changes in expression levels of hub genes (BHLHE40, CASP4, PECAM1, PKM, SERPINB1, TLR2, VEGFA) associated with pyroptosis in AD in the combined dataset revealed that BHLHE40, CASP4, PKM, SERPINB1, TLR2, and VEGFA were all more highly expressed in the AD group compared to the control group, whereas PECAM1 had a lower expression level in the AD group compared to the control group (Figure 12A).