title: MTHFR and ACE gene polymorphisms and risk of vascular and degenerative dementias in the elderly.
abstract: Focal lacunar infarctions due to cerebral small vessel atherosclerosis or single/multiple large cortical infarcts lead to vascular dementia, and different genes and environmental factors have been implicated in causation or aggravation of the disease. Previous reports suggest that some of the risk factors may be common to both vascular as well as degenerative dementia. Among genetic factors, role of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) and methylene-tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) genes as putative risk factors has been examined but the outcome of these studies remain inconclusive. Present study attempted to see the importance of ACE alu insertion/deletion and MTHFR C677T polymorphisms as genetic predisposers to dementia. The study comprised of 80 vascular dementia patients, 90 degenerative dementia patients and 170 age matched controls. All were genotyped for ACE, MTHFR and APOE polymorphisms using PCR-RFLP method. Frequency of ACE D allele was seemingly high in dementia cases (26.7%) when compared to controls (11.2%). However, after adjusting for age and APOE E4*, none of the ACE alleles showed good correlation. MTHFR genotypes or alleles also did not show any correlation. Our study suggests no true correlation of ACE or MTHR genes with dementia in elderly.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow 226014, India.
authors.forename: Pratima
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pandey
authors.forename: Sunil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pradhan
authors.forename: Dinesh Raj
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Modi
authors.forename: Balraj
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mittal
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000483:Alleles; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003704:Dementia / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D017353:Gene Deletion; D005787:Gene Frequency; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D042965:Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (NADPH2) / Q000235:genetics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D018579:Patient Selection; D007703:Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A / Q000235:genetics*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic
chemical_list: D042965:Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (NADPH2); D007703:Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A