Abstract
Neurodegenerative disorders are associated with impaired cognitive function and worse physical health outcomes. This study aims to test whether polygenic risk for Alzheimer’s disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), or frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is associated with cognitive function and physical health in the UK Biobank, a cohort of healthy individuals. Group-based analyses were then performed to compare the top and bottom 10% for the three neurodegenerative polygenic risk scores; these groups were compared on the cognitive and physical health variables. Higher polygenic risk for AD, ALS, and FTD was associated with lower cognitive performance. Higher polygenic risk for FTD was also associated with increased forced expiratory volume in 1s and peak expiratory flow. A significant group difference was observed on the symbol digit substitution task between individuals with high polygenic risk for FTD and high polygenic risk for ALS. The results suggest some overlap between polygenic risk for neurodegenerative disorders, cognitive function and physical health.
Highlights
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia and it is expected that over one million people in the UK will be diagnosed with this disease by 2025 [1]
The aim of this study is to extend the work accomplished in AD to frontotemporal dementia (FTD)/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and to further explore whether polygenic risk for AD, FTD, or ALS is associated with cognitive performance, or with physical function measures known to be affected by motor neuron degeneration
The present study confirmed and extended previous findings that polygenic risk for AD is associated with multi-domain cognitive functioning in healthy adults
Summary
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia and it is expected that over one million people in the UK will be diagnosed with this disease by 2025 [1]. Genetic overlap between neurodegenerative disease, cognitive ability and physical function requested via https://ifgcsite.wordpress.com/dataaccess/
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