CAT53 and HFE alleles in Alzheimer's disease: A putative protective role of the C282Y HFE mutation

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a complex disorder, resulting from an interaction between environmental and genetic factors. Several studies addressed the association of AD with MHC class-I polymorphisms without definite conclusions. Considering the remarkable linkage disequilibrium at the MHC region, it is not possible to assume if the reported associations result from a direct effect of the respective genes or result from associations with other closely linked genes transmitted in an extended conserved haplotype. Recent evidence pointed to CAT53, a newly described gene located at the MHC class-I region in the vicinity of HLA-C, as a candidate modifier gene in AD. CAT53 encodes a phosphatase 1 nuclear inhibitor protein and is strongly expressed in brain regions involved in memory and AD. Here we tested the potential association of CAT53 with the risk of developing AD and searched for potential haplotypic associations of CAT53 with two common mutations (H63D, C282Y) in the HFE gene, also located at chromosome 6p21.3. The allele frequencies of these mutations in AD patients were compared to the expected frequencies previously established in the normal Portuguese population. We detected only one polymorphism (G>A) in CAT53, at position 8232, in intron 17. Screening of this polymorphism in 113 AD patients and 82 controls did not show any evidence of association, therefore excluding the hypothetical role of the CAT53 polymorphism as modifier in AD. In contrast, we found a significant negative association of the C282Y HFE mutation with AD, thus supporting a putative protective role of this protein variant in neurodegeneration.