Plasma Concentrations of the Amyloid-β Peptides in Young Volunteers: The Influence of the APOE Genotype

Abstract

Changes in the concentrations of amyloid-β (Aβ) in the body fluids are the earliest alterations observed in Alzheimer's disease (AD), however, there is a lack of data about how early these alterations occur, before the onset of the clinical symptoms. APOE genotype is the most recognized genetic risk/protective factor of AD, meaning that a group of non-demented persons carrying ε4 allele is enriched in the subjects who will develop AD, compared to the group of non-carriers. Therefore, we studied the plasma concentrations of Aβ peptides (Aβ_1-42, Aβ_1-40, Aβ_x-42, and Aβ_x-40), and the APOE genotype in 173 young volunteers (average age, 28 ± 7.6 years) without memory deficits, in order to see whether the non-demented group of subjects at risk already characterize with Aβ changes three-to-four decades before the age at which dementia usually occurs. We did not find statistically significant differences among the groups of ε4 carriers, ε3 homozygotes, and ε2 carriers. We conclude that the APOE genotype does not influence the metabolism of the Aβ peptides in young persons without memory deficits.