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Genetic association between APOE*4 and neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease is dependent on the psychosis phenotype

Christie, D and Shofer, J and Millard, SP and Li, E and DeMichele-Sweet, MA and Weamer, EA and Kamboh, MI and Lopez, OL and Sweet, RA and Tsuang, D (2012) Genetic association between APOE*4 and neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease is dependent on the psychosis phenotype. Behavioral and Brain Functions, 8.

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Abstract

Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms such as psychosis are prevalent in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) and are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Because these disabling symptoms are generally not well tolerated by caregivers, patients with these symptoms tend to be institutionalized earlier than patients without them. The identification of protective and risk factors for neuropsychiatric symptoms in AD would facilitate the development of more specific treatments for these symptoms and thereby decrease morbidity and mortality in AD. The E4 allele of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene is a well-documented risk factor for the development of AD. However, genetic association studies of the APOE 4 allele and BPS in AD have produced conflicting findings.Methods: This study investigates the association between APOE and neuropsychiatric symptoms in a large sample of clinically well-characterized subjects with probable AD (n=790) who were systematically evaluated using the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) Behavioral Rating Scale for Dementia (BRSD).Results: Our study found that hallucinations were significantly more likely to occur in subjects with no APOΕ4 alleles than in subjects with two Ε4 alleles (15% of subjects and 5% of subjects, respectively; p=.0066), whereas there was no association between the occurrence of delusions, aberrant motor behavior, or agitation and the number of Ε4 alleles. However, 94% of the subjects with hallucinations also had delusions (D+H).Conclusion: These findings suggest that in AD the Ε4 allele is differentially associated with D+H but not delusions alone. This is consistent with the hypothesis that distinct psychotic subphenotypes may be associated with the APOE allele. © 2012 Christie et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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Details

Item Type: Article
Status: Published
Creators/Authors:
CreatorsEmailPitt UsernameORCID
Christie, D
Shofer, J
Millard, SP
Li, E
DeMichele-Sweet, MA
Weamer, EAeae19@pitt.eduEAE19
Kamboh, MIkamboh@pitt.eduKAMBOH
Lopez, OLollopez@pitt.eduOLLOPEZ
Sweet, RAsweet@pitt.eduSWEET
Tsuang, D
Date: 27 December 2012
Date Type: Publication
Journal or Publication Title: Behavioral and Brain Functions
Volume: 8
DOI or Unique Handle: 10.1186/1744-9081-8-62
Schools and Programs: School of Public Health > Human Genetics
School of Medicine > Neurology
School of Medicine > Psychiatry
Refereed: Yes
Date Deposited: 02 Dec 2016 14:57
Last Modified: 02 Feb 2019 14:57
URI: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/29783

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