Objective: Analysing the relationship between the polymorphisms of ApoE gene and cognitive performance of patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Background: Cognitive impairment is a common clinical problem in the course of Parkinson’s disease (PD). It is associated with decreased quality of life, increased caregiver burden, higher mortality rates, higher risk for institutionalization, and increased treatment costs. Is already know that PD and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) share clinical and neuropathological features and how the APOE ε 4 allele is a well-know risk factor of AD this allele has also been implicated in susceptibility to Parkinson’s disease dementia. Previos studies have shown contradictory results about this association.

Methods: Were evaluated 186 patients in regular follow-up in specialized clinics of movement disorders in the University of São Paulo in Ribeirão Preto and Federal University of São Paulo. We used the MoCA test for assessments of cognitive performance and all participants underwent genotyping for the APOE ε2, ε3 and ε4.

Results: The APOE ε4 was associated with higher performance in MoCA test.

Conclusions: The results of our study suggest that the APOE 4 allele is associated whith better results in MoCA test, a discrepant results of other published. The pathophysiology of dementia in Parkinson’s disease is multifactorial and not well known. So we believe that the APOE gene has influence on this process but its impact is very small and when we evaluate some influential factor in a small population can have statistically significant results but without practical influence. Another factor that may influence such result is the mean of onset of symptoms is smaller than described in the literature. The assessment of cognitive performance was made for just one test and we know that is not the best way to avaluete congnition and a larger batery is necessary. The MoCA-BR seems suitable for persons with at least 4 years of education and 45% of our sample have less education than 4 years. More studies with a larger samples are warranted to clarify the role of APOE gene in cognitive performance of patients with Parkinson’s disease.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/apolipoprotein-e-genotypes-in-brazilian-patients-with-parkinsons-disease-and-their-correlation-with-cognitive-performance-assessed-by-moca/