Tumor necrosis factor alpha polymorphism C-850T is not associated with Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia in an Italian population.
A pathogenic role of inflammatory factors has been proposed both in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD). A previous report indicated the presence of polymorphism C-850T of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha as a genetic risk factor for VD and, associated with apolipoprotein E epsilon 4, for AD. We have assessed the association between TNF-alpha polymorphism and dementias in Italian populations of AD, VD and elderly controls. The influence of TNF-alpha polymorphism on dementia has not been confirmed in this segment of the Italian population.
An APOE haplotype associated with decreased ε4 expression increases the risk of late onset Alzheimer's disease.
This paper addresses a tenet of the literature on APOE, i.e., the relationship between the effects of the e4, one of the established genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), and its expression levels as determined by APOE promoter polymorphisms. Five polymorphisms (-491 rs449647, -427 rs769446, -219 rs405509, and e rs429358-rs7412) were studied in 1308 AD patients and 1082 control individuals from the Central-Northern Italy. Major findings of the present study are the following: 1) the variants -219T and e4 increase the risk for late onset AD (LOAD) when they are both present in cis on the same chromosome (in phase); 2) the correlation between the haplotype (-219T/e4) and AD risk p…