title: Tau haplotypes and ApoE4 do not act in synergy on Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: There are conflicting results regarding the role of tau (MAPT) haplotypes in neurodegenerative disorders. Recent reports suggest that ethnicity factors and gene-gene interactions may influence the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD). The present study investigates possible synergism between MAPT haplotype and ApoE state in Hungarian Caucasian AD cases (n=91) and control (n=83) population. The difference in MAPT H1 allele frequency did not reach significant level in AD (78%), and control individuals (73.5%), however ApoE4 carriers were significantly overrepresented in AD (34.1% vs. 20%) compared to the control population. Though a specific combination of ApoE4 and H1 alleles were found to be associated to AD (14.5% vs. 30.8%), synergistic genetic interaction could not be inferred. Our findings support the notion that while ApoE4 might be involved in AD pathology the MAPT H1 allele neither associates nor interacts through an epistasis with ApoE4 in the development of the disease.
authors.affiliation: University of Szeged, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Szeged, Hungary. almos@nepsy.szote.u-szeged.hu
authors.forename: Péter Z
authors.initials: PZ
authors.lastname: Almos
authors.forename: Szatmár
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Horváth
authors.forename: Agnes
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Czibula
authors.forename: István
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Raskó
authors.forename: Nóra
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Domján
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Juhász
authors.forename: Zoltán
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Janka
authors.forename: János
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kálmán
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D053327:Apolipoprotein E4 / Q000235:genetics*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D053327:Apolipoprotein E4; D016875:tau Proteins