The association between promoter polymorphism of the interleukin-10 gene and Alzheimer's disease

Ma, Suk Ling; Tang, Nelson Leung Sang; Lam, Linda Chiu Wa; Chiu, Helen Fung Kum

doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2004.08.010

« Previous Next »Neurobiology of Aging
Volume 26, Issue 7 , Pages 1005-1010, July 2005

The association between promoter polymorphism of the interleukin-10 gene and Alzheimer's disease

Suk Ling Ma
- Department of Chemical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China
Nelson Leung Sang Tang
- Department of Chemical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China
Linda Chiu Wa Lam
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +852 26076040; fax: +852 26671255.
Helen Fung Kum Chiu
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China
- Jockey Club Centre for Positive Ageing, Hong Kong, China

Received 29 October 2003; received in revised form 11 August 2004; accepted 31 August 2004.

Abstract

The importance of the role of inflammation has been suggested in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Interleukin-10 (IL-10) is an anti-inflammatory cytokine that may modulate the progression of the disease through the inhibition of the action of pro-inflammatory cytokines. In this study, three polymorphisms in the regulatory region of the IL-10 gene (−1082, −819 and −592) in 95 Chinese AD patients and 117 age-matched healthy Chinese subjects were investigated. We found that among the Chinese population, the A and C alleles at the −592 position are strongly linked to the T and C alleles at the –819 position, respectively. A strong association with AD was found for these two IL-10 polymorphisms, which are in complete linkage disequilibrium (−592C and −819C), and the odds ratio of AD is 4.03 (95% CI 1.23–13.23; p=0.011). The functional significance of the IL-10 genotype was further supported by the significant association between plasma IL-10 concentrations and genotypes that were found in an independent sample of 160 healthy male volunteers. No interaction effect between the ApoE and IL-10 genotypes is found. Therefore, we concluded that the functional polymorphisms of the IL-10 gene act as a risk factor for AD.