Journal of Alzheimers Disease & Parkinsonism
Open Access

Abstract

Some studies showed that Val66Met polymorphism of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) conveys susceptibility to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) in females only. However, the confounding effects of some risk factors for AD were omitted in these studies. This meta-analysis comprising 19,604 AD patients and 26,333 controls was aimed to re-examine the association between Val66Met and AD by conditioning the effects of age, sex and Àpolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 status. In general, Val66Met was not associated with AD before (OR=1.02, 95% CI=0.97-1.07; P=0.40) and after adjusting for age, sex and APOE ε4 status (OR=1.00; 95% CI=0.94-1.06; P=0.97). In agreement with the previous meta-analysis, Val66Met was associated with AD in females without confounding adjustment (OR=1.08; 95% CI=1.03-1.14; P=0.003). Nevertheless, after adjusting for age and APOE ε4 status, Val66Met was not associated with AD in either females (OR=1.02; 95% CI=0.94-1.11; P=0.57) or males (OR=0.94; 95% CI=0.86-1.04; P=0.22). Likewise, after adjusting for sex and APOE ε4 status, Val66Met was not associated with AD in either APOE ε4 carriers (OR=0.97, 95% CI=0.88-1.07; P=0.56) or non-carriers (OR=1.02, 95% CI=0.94-1.11; P=0.64). This comprehensive meta-analysis with the largest sample size demonstrated no association could be observed between Val66Met and AD in general or by dividing samples based on sex or APOE ε4. jiangshan@wustl.edu shannjiang@hotmail.com

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