Rapid, Non-Invasive Screening Method for Alzheimer's Disease

In late-onset Alzheimer's disease cases, the apolipoprotein E gene ε4 allele is considered a negative factor for neural regeneration. Apolipoprotein E genotyping is crucial to apolipoprotein E polymorphism analysis. Peripheral venous blood is the conventional tissue source for apolipoprotein E genotyping polymorphism analysis. Blood yields high-quality genomic DNA and can meet various research purposes. However, because of invasiveness, taking blood samples decreases compliance among the elderly, especially neuropsychiatric patients. Moreover, blood specimens often need cold storage, thereby increasing the cost. A research team from Department of Neurology, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital in China pointed out a non-invasive and fast method to genotype large samples to help to elucidate the role of apolipoprotein E gene ε4 allele in neural regeneration in the cases with late-onset Alzheimer's disease.

Genomic DNA from mouth swab specimens was extracted using magnetic nanoparticles, and genotyping was performed by real-time PCR using TaqMan-BHQ probes. Genotyping accuracy was validated by DNA sequencing. The method developed for apolipoprotein E genotyping is accurate and reliable, and also suitable for genotyping large samples, which may help determine the role of the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele in neural regeneration in late-onset Alzheimer's disease cases. The relevant paper has been published in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No. 1, 2014).

Source-Eurekalert