Potential role of APOE ɛ4 allele as a modifier for the association of BDNF Val66Met polymorphisms and cognitive impairment in community-dwelling older adults

• Published in: Frontiers in aging neuroscience Vol. 16; p. 1330193
• Main Authors: Ji, Shaozhen, Kang, Jia, Han, Chao, Xu, Xitong, Chen, Meijie, Chen, Jie, Chhetri, Jagadish K, Pan, Jing, Chan, Piu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Research Foundation 05.02.2024; Frontiers Media S.A
• Subjects: Aging; Aging Neuroscience; Alleles; APOE ε4; Apolipoprotein E; BDNF Val66Met; Brain-derived neurotrophic factor; Cognitive ability; cognitive impairment; Confounding (Statistics); Dementia disorders; Disease; Genotype & phenotype; Health risk assessment; Memory; modify; older adults; Older people; Polymorphism; Regression analysis; Beijing China; China; APOE ε4; older adults; modify; BDNF Val66Met; cognitive impairment
• ISSN: 1663-4365; 1663-4365
• DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1330193

To determine whether the brain-derived neurotrophic factor ( ) Val66Met polymorphism is associated with cognitive impairment (CI) in community-dwelling Chinese older adults, and to investigate whether this relationship is modified by the Apolipoprotein E ( ) ɛ4 allele. The study is a secondary analysis of 703 participants aged ≥60 years randomly enrolled from the Beijing Longitudinal Study of Aging II prospective cohort. The education-adjusted Mini-Mental State Examination and the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale were used to measure the cognitive performance of the subjects. The main effects and interactions (additive and multiplicative) of the Met and the ε4 alleles on CI were estimated by logistic regression models. In total, 84 out of 703 older adults aged ≥60 years old had CI. No significant difference was observed in the risk of CI between participants with the Met allele and that of subjects without the Met allele (  = 0.213;  = 0.164). Individuals carrying both the Met and ε4 alleles had an almost 1.5-fold increased odds of CI compared with carriers of the Met allele but without the ε4 allele. The additive association indicated a positive interaction of both Met and ε4 alleles with wide CIs (  = 0.021;  = 0.018). The results suggest that the ε4 allele may be a potential modifier for the association of the Val66Met polymorphism with CI in community-dwelling older adults.