Alzheimers disease is not associated with the hypertension genetic risk factors PLA₂ or G protein β3, either independently or interactively with apolipoprotein E

Growing evidence suggests that hypertension and Alzheimers disease (AD) may share a common etiology. To evaluate the contribution to AD of genetic factors associated with hypertension, we genotyped clinic and community-based AD cases and controls for polymorphisms within the pancreatic PLA₂ gene and the G protein β3 subunit gene, both of which are located on chromosome 12. Our results do not support an independent association between either of these genes and AD. We further assessed the possibility that either of these genes may interact with the apolipoprotein E gene, a known risk factor for hypertension and AD, on predicting AD. We were unable to find statistical interaction between either the pancreatic PLA₂ or Gβ3 genes and the apolipoprotein E gene on risk for AD. These results do not support a shared genetic etiology between hypertension and AD. Possibly, a clinical association between these diseases could be due to pathophysiologic interactions.