Reassessing Diabetes and APOE Genotype as Potential Interacting Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s Disease

• Published in: American journal of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias 2022-01, Vol.37, p.15333175211070912-15333175211070912
• Main Authors: Ravipati, Kaushik, Chen, Yunxiao, Manns, Joseph R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alleles; Alzheimer Disease - genetics; Apolipoprotein E4 - genetics; Apolipoproteins E - genetics; Diabetes Mellitus - epidemiology; Diabetes Mellitus - genetics; Genotype; Humans; Original; Retrospective Studies; Risk Factors
• ISSN: 1533-3175; 1938-2731
• DOI: 10.1177/15333175211070912

Objective: To assess whether diabetes alone or in association with Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 genotype increases the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) diagnosis. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 33,456 participants from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center database. Results: Participants with one or two APOE ε4 alleles had 2.71 (CI:2.55–2.88) and 9.37 (CI:8.14–10.78) times higher odds of AD diagnosis, respectively, relative to those with zero ε4 alleles. In contrast, diabetic participants showed 1.07 (CI:0.96–1.18) times higher odds of AD relative to nondiabetics. Diabetes did not exacerbate the odds of AD in APOE ε4 carriers. APOE ε4 carriage was correlated with declines in long-term memory and verbal fluency, which were strongly correlated with conversion to AD. However, diabetes was correlated with working memory decline, which had a relatively weak correlation with AD. Conclusions: Unlike APOE ε4, there was little evidence that diabetes was a risk factor for AD.