Association of late-onset Alzheimer's disease with genetic variation in multiple members of the <i>GAPD</i> gene family

TLDR

The genetics of late‑onset Alzheimer’s disease is complex, with only APOE consistently linked to risk despite multiple chromosomal loci being implicated. The study conducted a large‑scale SNP‑based association analysis across chromosome 12 in 1,089 LOAD patients and 1,196 controls, identifying SNPs in the GAPD gene. SNPs in GAPD and its paralogs, including a compound genotype across three genes, were significantly associated with LOAD, suggesting that functionally similar variants contribute to disease risk heterogeneity and supporting a role for GAPD in neuronal apoptosis.

Abstract

Although several genes have been implicated in the development of the early-onset autosomal dominant form of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the genetics of late-onset AD (LOAD) is complex. Loci on several chromosomes have been linked to the disease, but so far only the apolipoprotein E gene has been consistently shown to be a risk factor. We have performed a large-scale single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based association study, across the region of linkage on chromosome 12, in multiple case-control series totaling 1,089 LOAD patients and 1,196 control subjects and report association with SNPs in the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase ( GAPD ) gene. Subsequent analysis of GAPD paralogs on other chromosomes demonstrated association with two other paralogs. A significant association between LOAD and a compound genotype of the three GAPD genes was observed in all three sample sets. Individually, these SNPs make differential contributions to disease risk in each of the casecontrol series, suggesting that variants in functionally similar genes may account for series-to-series heterogeneity of disease risk. Our observations raise the possibility that GAPD genes are AD risk factors, a hypothesis that is consistent with the role of GAPD in neuronal apoptosis.