title: Chitinase expression in Alzheimer's disease and non-demented brains regions.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Alzheimer disease is the most typical form of dementia. The causes of AD are not yet completely understood, but they include a combination of genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors that influence ja person's risk for developing the disease. New biomarkers related to these processes could be important for the diagnosis and follow-up of AD patients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The intent of this study was to weigh the expression levels of chitinases genes in brain regions of late-onset AD (LOAD) patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analysed three microarray datasets obtained from the NCBI in order to verify the expression levels of chitinase genes family in brain biopsies (CR, DLPFC and VC) of LOAD patients compared to healthy subjects. We also divided the sample in function of sex difference and ages.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The analysis showed that all chitinases genes were modulated in LOAD brain regions compared to healthy subjects. Furthermore positively correlation was identified between chitinases gene expression and healthy age's subjects. Moreover, it has been shown that CHI3L1 and CHI3L2 were regulated differently in healthy and LOAD brain depending on the sex.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is possible to conclude that all chitinases could be considered new potential markers for LOAD disease.
authors.affiliation: Section of Neurosciences, Department G.F. Ingrassia, University of Catania, Via Santa Sofia, 78, 95123 Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sanfilippo
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Malaguarnera
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, Italy. Electronic address: mdirosa@unict.it.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Di Rosa
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D002688:Chitinases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D046228:Microarray Analysis; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D002688:Chitinases
keywords: CHI3L1; CHIT1; Chitinase; LOAD; Visual cortex