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Presence of an APOE4 allele results in significantly earlier onset of Parkinson's disease and a higher risk with dementia
Author(s) -
Pankratz Nathan,
Byder Lisa,
Halter Cheryl,
Rudolph Alice,
Shults Clifford W.,
Conneally P. Michael,
Foroud Tatiana,
Nichols William C.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
movement disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.352
H-Index - 198
eISSN - 1531-8257
pISSN - 0885-3185
DOI - 10.1002/mds.20663
Subject(s) - dementia , age of onset , apolipoprotein e , allele , etiology , medicine , disease , genotype , parkinson's disease , family history , oncology , genetics , biology , gene
The ε4 allele of the apolipoprotein E gene (APOE4) has been consistently associated with a greater risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) as well as an earlier onset of AD. It is possible that APOE4 may also play a role in the etiology of other neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson's disease (PD). APOE genotype, age of onset, disease duration, smoking history, and dementia status were collected for families with PD, yielding 324 Caucasian families with complete information. Logistic regression employing one individual per family and including age of onset and disease duration as covariates demonstrated a significantly increased risk of dementia for those individuals having inherited at least one ε4 allele (OR = 3.37; P = 0.002). Survival analyses also demonstrated a significantly earlier age of onset for those subjects with at least one ε4 allele (59.7 years) as compared with those homozygous for the more common ε3 allele (62.4 years; P = 0.009). Thus, consistent with previous studies, we find evidence that the presence of an ε4 allele results in significantly earlier onset of PD and a greater likelihood of dementia. It appears the similarities between PD and AD may be due to an overlap in the diseases' genetic etiology. © 2005 Movement Disorder Society