Varying Effects of APOE Alleles on Extreme Longevity in European Ethnicities.

ABSTRACT: APOE is a well-studied gene with multiple effects on aging and longevity. The gene has three alleles: e2, e3, and e4, whose frequencies vary by ethnicity. While the e2 is associated with healthy cognitive aging, the e4 allele is associated with Alzheimer's disease and early mortality and therefore its prevalence among people with extreme longevity (EL) is low. Using the PopCluster algorithm, we identified several ethnically different clusters in which the effect of the e2 and e4 alleles on EL changed substantially. For example, PopCluster discovered a large group of 1,309 subjects enriched of Southern Italian genetic ancestry with weaker protective effect of e2 (odds ratio [OR] = 1.27, p = .14) and weaker damaging effect of e4 (OR = 0.82, p = .31) on the phenotype of EL compared to other E

SUBMITTER: Gurinovich A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7330482 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature