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Confirmation of the association between bleomycin hydrolase genotype and Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Bleomycin hydrolase (BH), a cysteine protease from the papain superfamily, is considered to be a candidate for the β-secretase, which is presumably involved in the production of β-amyloid peptide. The G/G genotype of BH was identified as a significant risk factor for the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in subjects not carrying the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele (apoE-ε4). However, this finding was recently challenged. We studied this polymorphism in a homogenous sample of German AD patients and controls. The over-representation of the G/G genotype in AD patients could be confirmed, however it was more pronounced in apoE-ε4 carriers. Additional studies should be undertaken to increase the confidence that the BH polymorphism is associated with AD and to explore the relationship between BH and apoE.

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Acknowledgements

Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (He 2318) and the BONFOR grants program of the Medical Faculty of the University of Bonn (AP 111/34).

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Correspondence to A Papassotiropoulos.

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Papassotiropoulos, A., Bagli, M., Jessen, F. et al. Confirmation of the association between bleomycin hydrolase genotype and Alzheimer's disease. Mol Psychiatry 5, 213–215 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4000656

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