title: A study of alpha-adrenoceptor gene polymorphisms and Alzheimer disease.
abstract: There exists considerable evidence implicating abnormalities of the alpha (alpha)-adrenergic system in the development of Alzheimer disease (AD). We propose to investigate potential correlations between the presence or otherwise of alpha-adrenoceptor polymorphisms and the presence of AD. We studied the polymorphisms of the alpha1a- and the alpha2a-adrenoceptor genes in 142 AD patients and 98 normal controls. The result demonstrated that none of the alpha2a-adrenoceptor genotypes was associated with increased susceptibility to AD. However, there was a trend that the frequency of the C allele of the alpha1a-adrenoceptor was elevated and an excess of the CC genotype (90.1%) was found in the subjects with AD in comparison with the controls (78.6%). This association was unrelated to the apolipoprotein E genotypes. The hypothesis that the alpha1a-adrenoceptor gene may be implicated in the pathogenesis of AD may deserve further study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Veterans General Hospital-Taipei, National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan, Republic of China.
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Y C
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: T Y
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Tsai
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D018340:Receptors, Adrenergic, alpha-1 / Q000235:genetics*; D018341:Receptors, Adrenergic, alpha-2 / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D001057:Apolipoproteins E; D018340:Receptors, Adrenergic, alpha-1; D018341:Receptors, Adrenergic, alpha-2