Genetic analysis of Vietnamese patients with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia and its prevalence is rapidly increasing worldwide. Early-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD) constitutes of patients with age of onset earlier than 65 year-old and is known to be associated with genetic mutations. In this study, we reported the first genetic analysis of Vietnamese patients with EOAD. We analyzed targeted sequencing data obtained from a cohort of 51 Vietnamese EOAD patients to identify pathogenic variants in twenty nine well-characterized neurodengerative genes. We identified four missense mutations in genes from six individuals, which accounts for 11.8% of all tested cases. Three of these mutations were previously reported as pathogenic and one mutation in the gene was newly identified and might be specific for Vietnamese patients. Our study also found eight individuals carrying homozygous ε4 allele, the main risk factor gene for late-onset AD. Our findings showed that mutation rate in genes in Vietnamese EOAD patients is consistent with that in other ethnic groups. Although further functional studies are required to validate the pathogenesis of the new mutations, our study demonstrated the necessity of genetic screening for EOAD patients as well as additional genetic data collection in Vietnamese population.