Association of IL10 promoter polymorphism in Italian Alzheimer's disease.

Recent studies have reported a genetic association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the promoter region of Interleukin (IL) 10 and Alzheimer's disease (AD) with conflicting results. To further investigate the proposed association and to clarify the role of cytokines as a potential cause for AD susceptibility, we analyzed genotypes, allele distributions and haplotypes of IL10 promoter polymorphisms -1082 (rs1800896) and -819 (rs1800871) in an Italian sample of 222 sporadic AD patients and 179 normal controls. All 401 subjects were also genotyped for the Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) polymorphism. We reported a positive association between the -819T/C polymorphism and AD. Moreover, we found a significant difference for this SNP in the ApoE varepsilon4 non-carrier AD patients compared to the ApoE varepsilon4 non-carrier control group. For the -1082A genotype and allele distribution, no significant association was found in AD patients, although it was detected within the AT haplotype. Our results indicate that IL10 polymorphisms may be involved in the risk of developing AD.