AUTHOR=Lin Eugene , Kuo Po-Hsiu , Liu Yu-Li , Yang Albert C. , Tsai Shih-Jen 

TITLE=Association and Interaction Effects of Interleukin-12 Related Genes and Physical Activity on Cognitive Aging in Old Adults in the Taiwanese Population

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2019.01065

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2019.01065

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=<p>Evidence suggests that the neuro-inflammation mechanisms associated with interleukin-12 (IL-12) may be linked to Alzheimer's diseases and cognitive aging. In this study, we speculate that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in IL-12-associated genes, such as <italic>IL12A, IL12B, IL12RB1</italic>, and <italic>IL12RB2</italic> genes, could be associated with cognitive aging individually and/or via complicated interactions in the elder Taiwanese population. There were totally 3,730 Taiwanese individuals with age ≥60 years from the Taiwan Biobank. Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was analyzed for all participants. We employed MMSE scores to assess cognitive functions. Our analysis revealed that the <italic>IL12A</italic> gene (including rs116910715, rs78902931, and rs78569420), the <italic>IL12B</italic> gene (including rs730691), and the <italic>IL12RB2</italic> gene (including rs3790558, rs4655538, rs75699623, and rs1874396) were associated with cognitive aging. Among these SNPs, the association with the <italic>IL12RB2</italic> rs3790558 SNP remained significant after performing Bonferroni correction (<italic>P</italic> = 6.87 × 10<sup>−4</sup>). Additionally, we found that interactions between the <italic>IL12A</italic> and <italic>IL12RB2</italic> genes influenced cognitive aging (<italic>P</italic> = 0.022). Finally, we pinpointed the effects of interactions between <italic>IL12A, IL12B</italic>, and <italic>IL12RB2</italic> with physical activity (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001, = 0.002, and &lt; 0.001, respectively). Our study suggests that the IL-12-associated genes may contribute to susceptibility to cognitive aging independently as well as through gene-gene and gene-physical activity interactions.</p>