Lack of association of CR1, PICALM and CLU gene polymorphisms with Alzheimer disease in a Polish population

Background and purpose: Recent genome-wide association studies have indicated 3 new susceptibility loci for Alzheimer disease (AD): complement receptor 1 (CR1), clusterin (CLU), and the phosphatidylinositol-binding clathrin assembly protein (PICALM). We investigated the influence of the rs6656401 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of the CR1 gene, the rs3851179 SNP of the PICALM gene, and the rs11136000 SNP of the CLU gene on risk of AD in a Polish population. Material and methods: In 253 Caucasian AD patients and 240 controls, analyses identifying the rs6656401, rs3851179 and rs11136000 SNPs and APOE common polymorphisms were performed. Results: No significant differences were observed in the distribution of the rs6656401 of CR1, rs3851179 of PICALM and rs11136000 of CLU SNPs between AD patients and controls. The APOE epsilon 4 common polymorphism was strongly related to the risk of AD. Conclusion: Our results suggest that investigated SNPs are not associated with AD in a Polish population.