Evaluation of APOE Isoforms Frequency and Its Association With Some Paraclinical Factors Among Elderlies of Sistan Suffering From Age-related Dementia

A degree of age-related dementia has been well documented in almost all eukaryotes including human being. Symptomatic stages of dementia are manifested at later ages of life. There are several environmental and genetic factors leading to neuronal death in elderly individuals. In the present study, for the first time in Sistan Baluchestan province, status of the environmental factors related to lifestyle and their association with a known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, APOE, has been investigated. There were 55 affected and 70 healthy individuals participated in our study. Controls were age, sex, and ethnicity-matched with cases. This study was performed according to local institutional human ethical criteria and an informed written consent was obtained from all the participants. After screening of target population according to standard MMSE test, peripheral blood samples were drawn and used to determine lipid profile and metal ion levels of each individual. The DNA samples were also isolated from peripheral blood samples and underwent allele specific PCR (AS PCR) for APOE genotyping. Demographic factors such as age, sex, education level, smoking and substance addiction, heart attack and brain injury experience, and family history of disease were recorded. Our results showed a noticeable increase in allelic frequency of APOE E4 among cases. The blood HDL level of cases was markedly lower than that of controls while Cu ion has a higher level in peripheral blood samples of cases when compared to healthy control individuals. Moreover, most of the affected people were illiterate and drug abuser. Other assessed paraclinical factors displayed no significant differences between the two groups.