Genetics of Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease: a 1-Year Follow-Up Study.

AIM To investigate the association between candidate gene variants and domains of neuropsychiatric symptoms and its change in a 1-year period. METHODS Seven hundred and ninety-three Taiwanese participants with 47.8% of female, with Alzheimer's disease (AD) were enrolled. Genes associated with a risk of developing AD were selected as candidate genes. Neuropsychiatric symptoms were assessed using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Questionnaire (NPI-Q), and the total score of the NPI-Q and subscores for psychosis, mood, and frontal domains were calculated. RESULTS Patients with AD and the APOE e4 allele exhibited more obvious symptoms of psychosis. Mood symptoms were associated with CD33 rs3865444 and EPHA1 rs11767557, and frontal symptoms were associated with SORL1 rs3824968. A one-year time*alleles interaction effect of CD33 rs3865444 on mood symptoms was discerned. CONCLUSIONS Risk genes of AD, which are also associated with NPS, are APOE e4 for psychosis, CD33 and EPHA1 for mood symptoms, and SORL1 for frontal symptoms. The association between CD33 and mood symptoms is dynamic and could change over one year. However, the results should be interpreted with caution because correction for multiple comparisons were not performed. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.