• Zied Landoulsi, Mouna Ben Djebara, Imen Kacem, Youssef Sidhom, Rym Kefi, Sonia Abdelhak, Amina Gargouri-Berrechid, and Riadh Gouider.
• Department of Neurology, UR12SP21, Razi Hospital, Manouba, Tunisia.
• Med Princ Pract. 2018 Jan 1; 27 (4): 317322317-322.

ObjectiveRare variants in the TREM2 gene have been reported to significantly increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease in Caucasian populations. Hitherto, this association was not studied in North African populations. In this work, we aimed to study the association between TREM2 exon 2 variants and the risk of late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) in a Tunisian population.Subjects And MethodsWe sequenced exon 2 of TREM2 in a Tunisian cohort of 172 LOAD patients and 158 control subjects. We used the Fisher exact test to compare the distribution of allelic frequencies between the two groups.ResultsWe identified 4 previously reported nonsynonymous variants (p.Asp39Glu, p.Arg62His, p.Thr96Lys, and p.Val126Gly) and 1 novel synonymous variant (p.Gln109Gln), none of which was significantly associated with the risk of Alzheimer's disease. Moreover, the rare TREM2 variant (p.Arg47His), which was considered to be a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease in European descent populations, was not detected in our cohort.ConclusionThese findings do not support a major role for TREM2 in the pathogenesis of LOAD in the Tunisian population.© 2018 The Author(s) Published by S. Karger AG, Basel.

26 keywords...

hide…