OCCUPATION, APOLIPOPROTEIN E EPSILON2 ALLELE AND PARKINSON'S DISEASE RISK IN ISRAEL

1. OCCUPATION, APOLIPOPROTEIN E EPSILON2 ALLELE AND PARKINSON'S DISEASE RISK IN ISRAEL ,Peretz C1, Bar-Shira A2,4, Orr-Urtreger A2,4 , Giladi N 3,5 1Department of Epidemiology, 2Department of Genetics , 3Department of Neurology- Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, 4Deprtment of Genetics , 5Department of Neurology- Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Israel • INTRODUCTION • Parkinson's disease (PD) is currently considered as a multi-factorial • disease resulting from the effect of genetic and environmental • interaction. • Studies have shown a moderate association between PD and • farming as an occupation or exposure to pesticides. • The role of Apolipoprotein E (APOE) polymorphism as a risk marker • for PD is not clear. • Therefore, we aimed to investigate, the relationship between APOE • and farming as an occupation and the risk to develop PD • RESULTS (cont.) • Genetics: • Comparison between the 3 groups, on APOE variants, is presented in table 2 ,and on APOE alleles in figure 1 • A Gender effect was found accounting for study groups • APOE variants/genotyping (accounting for gender): • No significant difference between cases and controls-spouse • A borderline difference between cases and controls-OA (p=.0803) • E2 carriers (accounting for gender) : • No significant difference between cases and controls-spouse • (OR=.52, p=.1306) • A significant difference between cases and controls-OA • (OR=.43, p=.0259) • E3,E4 carriers (accounting for gender): • No significant difference between cases and controls-spouse • No significant difference between cases and controls-OA METHODS Design and study population: A case-controls (1:2) study on 150 patients with PD from Tel Aviv Medical Center, non-demented aged 50-75 (cases), 150 spouses (first control group-controls spouse) and 150 patients with osteoarthritis (OA) (second control group-controls OA). Questionnaire: The subjects were interviewed to a structured questionnaires on job history , specific exposures and background variables. Tests: APOE genotype was diagnosed from either blood or saliva which were taken from all participants Alleles: E2, E3, E4 Genotyping:E2/E2, E2/E3, E2/E4, E3/E3,E3/E4, E4/E4 Statistical Analysis: Logistic regressions Table 2: APOE variants (%) , in the 3 study groups, by gender RESULTS Occupational history: For each subject, in each study-group, we assessed 1-3 main occupations (based on the I-SIC classification) in which he worked at least 5 years. Table 1 presents comparison between the 3 groups on 3 selected occupations. Agriculture/Farming - males A significant difference between cases and controls-spouse (p<.05) No significant difference between cases and controls OA Industry-males No significant difference between cases and controls-spouse No significant difference between cases and controls-OA Education-females No significant difference between cases and controls-spouse No significant difference between cases and controls-OA Figure 1: Carriers of APOE allels E2,E3,E4 (%) in the 3 study groups, by gender Interaction Genetics*farming:non significant Table 1: Selected occupations (%) in the 3 study groups, by gender • CONCLUSIONS • Carrying the APOE-E2 haplotype may decrease ↓ the risk for PD • Farming as an occupation may increase ↑ the risk for PD. • However, the interaction between APOE haplotypes and occupation should further be investigated due to insufficient power of this case- controls (1:2) study