APOE and Alzheimer disease: In female patients, many hub genes exhibited significantly elevated expression in APOE ε3/ε4 AD cases compared to healthy controls with APOE ε3/ε4, and the 33 representative genes shown in the heatmap drawn from the 315 hub genes that showed significant upregulation in the female AD (ε3/ε4) subgroup (p < 0.05, Figure 3A); specifically, 132 of 315 hub genes were overexpressed in female APOE ε3/ε4 AD patients versus female APOE ε3/ε3 AD patients (Figures 3B,E).