No association between butyrylcholinesterase K-variant and Alzheimer disease in Chinese

Increased butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) activity has been reported to be ass ociated with the formation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles a nd may consequently be involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease (A D), Because the catalytic activity of BChE-K variant is reduced by one-thir d compared with non-variant, we speculated that BChE-K variant has a protec tive effect on AD. However, Lehmann et al, [1997] reported a synergistic ef fect between the genes for BChE-K variant and apolipoprotein E (ApoE) epsil on 4, which increases the risk for late onset AD, In the present study, we tested 89 Chinese AD patients and 101 Chinese controls and found no evidenc e of association between BCHE-K and AD of either early or late onset (age > 65 years). No evidence of a synergistic effect was found between the BCHE- K variant and APOE epsilon 4 in this study. Our data suggest that BChE-K va riant has no modifying effect on the pathogenesis of AD. (C) 2000 Wiley-Lis s, Inc.