APOE-stratified genome-wide association study suggests potential novel genes for late-onset Alzheimers disease in East-Asian descent

Abstract

In this study, we report two new possible susceptible genes for late-onset Alzheimers disease identified through an APOE-stratified genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) using East Asian samples. In the discovery phase, we performed a GWAS of Alzheimers disease in 2,291 Korean seniors from the Gwangju Alzheimers and Related Dementias (GARD) cohort study. A successive replication analysis with a Japanese sample of size 1,956 suggested three novel susceptible SNPs in two genes: LRIG1 and CACNA1A. This study demonstrates that the discovery of AD-associated variants can be accomplished in non-European ethnic groups with a more homogeneous genetic background using samples comprising fewer subjects.