AUTHOR=Ji Shaozhen , Kang Jia , Han Chao , Xu Xitong , Chen Meijie , Chen Jie , Chhetri Jagadish K , Pan Jing , Chan Piu 

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

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

VOLUME=16

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/aging-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2024.1330193

DOI=10.3389/fnagi.2024.1330193

ISSN=1663-4365

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Objective</title><p>To determine whether the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (<italic>BDNF</italic>) 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 (<italic>APOE</italic>) ɛ4 allele.</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Methods</title><p>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 <italic>BDNF</italic> Met and the <italic>APOE</italic> ε4 alleles on CI were estimated by logistic regression models.</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Results</title><p>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 <italic>BDNF</italic> Met allele and that of subjects without the <italic>BDNF</italic> Met allele (<italic>p</italic> = 0.213; <italic>p</italic> = 0.164). Individuals carrying both the <italic>BDNF</italic> Met and <italic>APOE</italic> ε4 alleles had an almost 1.5-fold increased odds of CI compared with carriers of the <italic>BDNF</italic> Met allele but without the <italic>APOE</italic> ε4 allele. The additive association indicated a positive interaction of both <italic>BDNF</italic> Met and <italic>APOE</italic> ε4 alleles with wide CIs (<italic>p</italic> = 0.021; <italic>p</italic> = 0.018).</p></sec><sec id="sec4"><title>Conclusion</title><p>The results suggest that the <italic>APOE</italic> ε4 allele may be a potential modifier for the association of the <italic>BDNF</italic> Val66Met polymorphism with CI in community-dwelling older adults.</p></sec>