Tuesday, October 16, 2012

APOE genotyping x Amyloid Load


October 16, 2012 — In older cognitively healthy adults, the amount of β-amyloid (Aβ) in the brain is a more important factor in determining risk for future memory decline than is the APOE ε4 allele, a study from Australia shows.
"Amyloid-related deterioration in memory occurs in cognitively normal healthy older adults with high Aβ and who carry the APOE ε4 allele," lead author Yen Ying Lim, MPsych, and PhD candidate, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, in Parkville, Victoria, Australia, told Medscape Medical News. "[Our] data suggest that Aβ amyloid is the most important factor in predicting this decline."
Yen Ying Lim
The study was published October 16 in Neurology.
Moderate Effect Sizes
The study involved 141 adults with an average age of 76 years enrolled in the Australian Imaging Biomarkers and Lifestyle (AIBL) study, a prospective longitudinal study of aging in Australia. All participants underwent positron emission tomography (PET) neuroimaging for cerebral Aβ, APOE genotyping, and cognitive assessment at baseline. Cognitive function was reassessed 18 months later.
Compared with the cognitive performance of healthy older adults with normal baseline cerebral Aβ load (PET standardized uptake value ratio [SUVR] < 1.5), those with an SUVR of 1.5 or higher showed significantly greater decline at 18 months on all measures of episodic memory assessed, the researchers report./.../

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