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APOE ε4-Allele in Middle-Aged and Older Autistic Adults: Associations with Verbal Learning and Memory

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disability and recent evidence suggests that autistic adults are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease (Alz) and other dementias compared to neurotypical (NT) adults. The ε4-allele of the Apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene is the strongest geneti...

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Autores principales: Harker, Samantha A., Al-Hassan, Lamees, Huentelman, Matthew J., Braden, B. Blair, Lewis, Candace R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10650864/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37958971
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms242115988
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author Harker, Samantha A.
Al-Hassan, Lamees
Huentelman, Matthew J.
Braden, B. Blair
Lewis, Candace R.
author_facet Harker, Samantha A.
Al-Hassan, Lamees
Huentelman, Matthew J.
Braden, B. Blair
Lewis, Candace R.
author_sort Harker, Samantha A.
collection PubMed
description Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disability and recent evidence suggests that autistic adults are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease (Alz) and other dementias compared to neurotypical (NT) adults. The ε4-allele of the Apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene is the strongest genetic risk factor for Alz and negatively impacts cognition in middle-aged and older (MA+) adults. This study aimed to determine the impact of the APOE ε4-allele on verbal learning and memory in MA+ autistic adults (ages 40–71 years) compared to matched NT adults. Using the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), we found that ε4 carriers performed worse on short-term memory and verbal learning across diagnosis groups, but there was no interaction with diagnosis. In exploratory analyses within sex and diagnosis groups, only autistic men carrying APOE ε4 showed worse verbal learning (p = 0.02), compared to autistic men who were not carriers. Finally, the APOE ε4-allele did not significantly affect long-term memory in this sample. These findings replicate previous work indicating that the APOE ε4-allele negatively impacts short-term memory and verbal learning in MA+ adults and presents new preliminary findings that MA+ autistic men may be vulnerable to the effects of APOE ε4 on verbal learning. Future work with a larger sample is needed to determine if autistic women may also be vulnerable.
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spelling pubmed-106508642023-11-05 APOE ε4-Allele in Middle-Aged and Older Autistic Adults: Associations with Verbal Learning and Memory Harker, Samantha A. Al-Hassan, Lamees Huentelman, Matthew J. Braden, B. Blair Lewis, Candace R. Int J Mol Sci Article Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disability and recent evidence suggests that autistic adults are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease (Alz) and other dementias compared to neurotypical (NT) adults. The ε4-allele of the Apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene is the strongest genetic risk factor for Alz and negatively impacts cognition in middle-aged and older (MA+) adults. This study aimed to determine the impact of the APOE ε4-allele on verbal learning and memory in MA+ autistic adults (ages 40–71 years) compared to matched NT adults. Using the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), we found that ε4 carriers performed worse on short-term memory and verbal learning across diagnosis groups, but there was no interaction with diagnosis. In exploratory analyses within sex and diagnosis groups, only autistic men carrying APOE ε4 showed worse verbal learning (p = 0.02), compared to autistic men who were not carriers. Finally, the APOE ε4-allele did not significantly affect long-term memory in this sample. These findings replicate previous work indicating that the APOE ε4-allele negatively impacts short-term memory and verbal learning in MA+ adults and presents new preliminary findings that MA+ autistic men may be vulnerable to the effects of APOE ε4 on verbal learning. Future work with a larger sample is needed to determine if autistic women may also be vulnerable. MDPI 2023-11-05 /pmc/articles/PMC10650864/ /pubmed/37958971 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms242115988 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Harker, Samantha A.
Al-Hassan, Lamees
Huentelman, Matthew J.
Braden, B. Blair
Lewis, Candace R.
APOE ε4-Allele in Middle-Aged and Older Autistic Adults: Associations with Verbal Learning and Memory
title APOE ε4-Allele in Middle-Aged and Older Autistic Adults: Associations with Verbal Learning and Memory
title_full APOE ε4-Allele in Middle-Aged and Older Autistic Adults: Associations with Verbal Learning and Memory
title_fullStr APOE ε4-Allele in Middle-Aged and Older Autistic Adults: Associations with Verbal Learning and Memory
title_full_unstemmed APOE ε4-Allele in Middle-Aged and Older Autistic Adults: Associations with Verbal Learning and Memory
title_short APOE ε4-Allele in Middle-Aged and Older Autistic Adults: Associations with Verbal Learning and Memory
title_sort apoe ε4-allele in middle-aged and older autistic adults: associations with verbal learning and memory
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10650864/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37958971
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms242115988
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