Clinical and neurochemical correlates of the APOE genotype in early-stage Parkinson's disease

emerging evidence indicates that apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype may influence parkinson's disease (PD) course, although clinical and neurochemical correlates have not been completely established. this study aimed to determine the associations of APOE genotypes (& epsilon;4 vs. non-& epsilon;4) with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) neurodegeneration biomarkers and clinical parameters in early-stage PD patients. one hundred and se-venty-five PD patients and 89 non-neurodegenerative controls grouped in APOE-& epsilon;4 carriers (28 PD; 12 controls) and non-APOE-& epsilon;4 carriers (147 PD; 78 controls) were enrolled. CSF levels of amyloid-& beta;-42, amyloid-& beta;-40, total and 181-phosphorylated tau, and clinical scores were compared among groups adjusting for main covariates. APOE genotypes prevalence was similar in PD and controls. PD APOE-& epsilon;4 carriers had lower amyloid-& beta;-42 CSF levels than PD non-APOE-& epsilon;4 carriers and controls, independently from age. PD APOE-& epsilon;4 carriers also had higher total and "item 5" (attention and memory) non-motor symptoms scale scores than PD non-APOE-& epsilon;4 carriers, independently from confounding factors. APOE-& epsilon;4 genotype might thus account for a more vulnerable PD subtype characterized by prominent amyloidopathy and a greater burden of non -motor symptoms in the early disease stages.data availability: data are available upon reasonable request.& COPY; 2023 the author(s). published by Elsevier Inc. this is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).