ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Cognitive and cerebrovascular diseases are common in the elderly, but differences in the plasma levels and associations of plasma biomarkers in these diseases remain elusive. METHODS: The present study investigated differences in plasma fatty acids [eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)], adiponectin, reptin, plasma markers of inflammation [high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and serum amyloid A (serum AA)], and plasma lipids [high-density lipoprotein and low-density lipoprotein (LDL)] in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) (n=266), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (n=44), vascular dementia (VaD) (n=33), and ischemic stroke (IS) (n=200) in comparison to normal controls (n=130). RESULTS: The serological data showed that lower EPA and DHA levels and higher reptin and LDL levels were associated with AD and IS, the reptin/adiponectin ratio was strongly associated with IS, the hsCRP level was more strongly associated with VaD and IS, and the serum AA level was associated with all three cognitive diseases and IS. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report of differences in the expression levels of plasma biomarkers and peripheral arterial tonometry among AD, MCI, VaD, and IS patients and normal controls. These different associations indicate that diverse pathological mechanisms underlie these diseases.
ABSTRACT
Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) reported CR1 rs3818361 polymorphism to be an Alzheimer's disease (AD) susceptibility variant in European ancestry. Three independent studies investigated this association in Chinese population. However, these studies reported weak or no significant association. Here, we reinvestigated the association using all the samples from three independent studies in Chinese population (N = 4047, 1244 AD cases and 2803 controls). We also selected three independent studies in European ancestry population (N = 11787, 3939 AD cases and 7848 controls) to evaluate the effect of rs3818361 polymorphism on AD risk in different ethnic backgrounds. In Chinese population, we did not identified significant heterogeneity using additive, recessive, and dominant genetic models. Meta-analysis showed significant association between rs3818361 and AD with P = 6.00E-03 and P = 5.00E-03. We further identified no heterogeneity of rs3818361 polymorphism between Chinese and European populations. We found that rs3818361 polymorphism contributed to AD with similar genetic risk in Chinese and European populations. In summary, this is the first study to show significant association between rs3818361 polymorphism and AD in Chinese population by a meta-analysis method. Our findings indicate that the effect of CR1 rs3818361 polymorphism on AD risk in Chinese cohorts is consistent with the increased risk observed in European AD cohorts.
