Associations of Risk Genes with Onset Age and Plasma Biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease: a Large Case–control Study in Mainland China

Most genetic studies concerning risk genes in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are from Caucasian populations, whereas the data remain limited in the Chinese population. In this study, we systematically explored the relationship between AD and risk genes in mainland China. We sequenced 33 risk genes previously reported to be associated with AD in a total of 3604 individuals in the mainland Chinese population. Common variant (MAF ≥ 0.01) based association analysis and gene-based (MAF < 0.01) association test were performed by PLINK 1.9 and Sequence Kernel Association Test-Optimal, respectively. Polygenic risk score (PRS) was calculated, and receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was computed. Plasma Aβ42, Aβ40, total tau (T-tau), and neurofilament light chain (NFL) were tested in a subgroup, and their associations with PRS were conducted using the Spearman correlation test. Six common variants varied significantly between AD patients and cognitively normal controls after the adjustment of age, gender, and APOE ε4 status, including variants in ABCA7 ( n = 5) and APOE ( n = 1). Among them, four variants were novel and two were reported previously. The AUC of PRS was 0.71. The high PRS was significantly associated with an earlier age at onset ( P = 4.30 × 10 −4 ). PRS was correlated with plasma Aβ42, Aβ42/Aβ40 ratio, T-tau, and NFL levels. Gene-based association test revealed that ABCA7 and UNC5C reached statistical significance. The common variants in APOE and ABCA7 , as well as rare variants in ABCA7 and UNC5C , may contribute to the etiology of AD. Moreover, the PRS, to some extent, could predict the risk, onset age, and biological changes of AD.