Analysis of Plasma Amyloid-Beta and Apolipoprotein E Genotypes as Markers of Alzheimer’s Disease in Healthy Korean Adults

Abstract

The presence of the ApoE4 allele interferes with human Amyloid-Beta (Aβ) clearance and reduces the neuronal damage response, which, in turn, is associated with increased Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) risk. Identifying individuals with the highest genetic risk may aid clinical AD diagnosis and prognosis. However, to the best of our knowledge, no previous study has performed blood-based analysis of ApoE polymorphisms and human Aβ in individuals undergoing health checkups. Here, we aimed to investigate ApoE genotypes and Aβ levels according to the age and sex of individuals undergoing health checkups using real-time polymerase chain reaction. For ApoE genotyping and human Aβ analysis, data from 423 human Aβ samples, within the 95% confidence interval, were analyzed. The Aβ levels increased and decreased with age in female and male individuals with the ApoE genotype E4, respectively. Our study provides age and sex-based ApoE genotype and Aβ data for healthy adults, highlighting the importance of ApoE4 and Aβ as predictors of AD risk and elucidating differences according to age and sex. Our study provides details on the genetic background of AD and thus, might aid in improving the efficiency of AD diagnosis.