Gene dose of the ε4 allele of apolipoprotein E and disease progression in sporadic late-onset alzheimer's disease

✍ Scribed by Dr Giovanni B. Frisoni; Stefano Govoni; Cristina Geroldi; Angelo Bianchetti; Laura Calabresi; Guido Franceschini; Marco Trabucchi

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 974 KB
• Volume: 37
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0364-5134
• DOI: 10.1002/ana.410370509

✦ Synopsis

A strong association has been described in cross-sectional studies between the ~4 allele of the apolipoprotein E and late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD). This study addresses the relationship between disease progression and the ~4 allele in 6 2 sporadic LOAD (onset at age 70 and over) patients. Disease progression was estimated retrospectively with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) amounting to 4.7,3.8, and 2.2 points per year (sex-adjusted test for trend: p = 0.01) and with the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) to 0.76, 0.67, and 0.42 units per year ( p = 0.03) in -1 -, ~4 1 -, and € 4 1 ~4 patients. The proportion of patients with fast progression decreased ( p 5 0.005) and with slow progression increased ( p = 0.002) with increasing ~4 gene dose. These findings were confirmed in a smaller sample of 28 patients for whom longitudinal assessments of MMSE were available and when nonlinear progression of the disease was accounted for in a stratified analysis. These data suggest that disease duration might be longer in ~4 carriers and that this might at least partly account for the cross-sectional association between the ~4 allele and LOAD.