The apolipoprotein epsilon 4 allele in Parkinson's disease with and without dementia.
The epsilon 4 isoform of apolipoprotein E (Apo-E) may confer genetic susceptibility for familial and sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD). Because dementia in AD and Parkinson's disease (PD) share many biologic and clinical features, we determined the Apo-E genotypes for 79 patients with PD, 22 of whom were demented, and for 44 age-matched healthy elderly controls from the same community. We hypothesized that if the dementia was similar to AD, there would be a higher allele frequency of apolipoprotein epsilon 4 (Apo epsilon 4) in demented PD patients compared with nondemented PD patients and controls. The epsilon 4 allele frequency for PD without dementia was 0.132, for PD with dementia, 0.068, and for controls, 0.102. There was no association between Apo epsilon 4 and dementia in the PD patients. We conclude that the biologic basis for dementia in PD may differ from that of AD.
Marder
K
K
G.H. Sergievsky Center, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032.
Maestre
G
G
Cote
L
L
Mejia
H
H
Alfaro
B
B
Halim
A
A
Tang
M
M
Tycko
B
B
Mayeux
R
R
D000368:Aged; D000483:Alleles; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D003704:Dementia / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007536:Isomerism; D008297:Male; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics*; D012016:Reference Values
D001057:Apolipoproteins E