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Research Paper|Volume 11, Issue 22|pp 10468—10484

Genome-wide association study of hippocampal atrophy rate in non-demented elders

Yu Guo1, Wei Xu1, Jie-Qiong Li1, Ya-Nan Ou1, Xue-Ning Shen2, Yu-Yuan Huang2, Qiang Dong2, Lan Tan1, Jin-Tai Yu2
  • 1Department of Neurology, Qingdao Municipal Hospital Affiliated to Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
  • 2Department of Neurology and Institute of Neurology, Huashan Hospital, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
* Data used in preparation of this article were obtained from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database (adni.loni.usc.edu). As such, the investigators within the ADNI contributed to the design and implementation of ADNI and/or provided data but did not participate in analysis or writing of this report. A complete listing of ADNI investigators can be found at: http://adni.loni.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/how_to_apply/ADNI_Acknowledgement_List.pdf.
Received: July 25, 2019Accepted: November 8, 2019Published: November 23, 2019

Copyright © 2019 Guo et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Hippocampal atrophy rate has been correlated with cognitive decline and its genetic modifiers are still unclear. Here we firstly performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify genetic loci that regulate hippocampal atrophy rate. Six hundred and two non-Hispanic Caucasian elders without dementia were included from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative cohort. Three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs4420638, rs56131196, rs157582) in the TOMM40-APOC1 region were associated with hippocampal atrophy rate at genome-wide significance and 3 additional SNPs (in TOMM40 and near MIR302F gene) reached a suggestive level of significance. Strong linkage disequilibrium between rs4420638 and rs56131196 was found. The minor allele of rs4420638 (G) and the minor allele of rs157582 (T) showed associations with lower Mini-mental State Examination score, higher Alzheimer Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale 11 score and smaller entorhinal volume using both baseline and longitudinal measurements, as well as with accelerated cognitive decline. Moreover, rs56131196 (P = 1.96 × 10-454) and rs157582 (P = 9.70 × 10-434) were risk loci for Alzheimer’s disease. Collectively, rs4420638, rs56131196 and rs157582 were found to be associated with hippocampal atrophy rate. Besides, they were also identified as genetic loci for cognitive decline.