Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) represents the major form of dementia in the elderly. In recent years, accumulating evidence indicate that obesity may act as a risk factor for AD, while the genetic link between the two conditions remains unclear. This bioinformatics analysis aimed to detect the genetic link between AD and obesity on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), gene, and pathway levels based on genome-wide association studies data. A total of 31 SNPs were found to be shared by AD and obesity, which were linked to 7 genes. These genes included PSMC3, CELF1, MYBPC3, SPI1, APOE, MTCH2 and RAPSN. Further functional enrichment analysis of these genes revealed the following biological pathways, including proteasome, osteoclast differentiation, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, Epstein-Barr virus and TLV-I infection, as well as several cancer associated pathways, to be common among AD and obesity. The findings deepened our understanding on the genetic basis linking obesity and AD and may help shape possible prevention and treatment strategies.
Highlights
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive and irreversible neurodegenerative disease discovered by Alois Alzheimer in 1906
Another study revealed that compared to the subjects with a normal body mass index (BMI), those obese (BMI > or = 30) at midlife exhibited a 3.1 fold increase in the incidence of AD, suggesting that midlife obesity can strongly predict the risk of AD [11]
Based on independent the International Genomics of Alzheimer’s Project (IGAP) or Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits (GIANT) data, we identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with AD or obesity with multiple p-values as cutoff criteria (Table 1)
Summary
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive and irreversible neurodegenerative disease discovered by Alois Alzheimer in 1906. Obesity have been reported to act as an important risk factor for a variety of diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, cancers, and etc.. A growing body of evidence supports that obesity can increase the risk of developing AD [9,10,11,12]. An 18-year followup study found that overweight at high ages can increase the risk of developing AD in women [10]. Another study revealed that compared to the subjects with a normal body mass index (BMI), those obese (BMI > or = 30) at midlife exhibited a 3.1 fold increase in the incidence of AD, suggesting that midlife obesity can strongly predict the risk of AD [11]
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