Lymphocyte-specific protein tyrosine kinase is a novel risk gene for Alzheimer disease

Lymphocyte-specific protein tyrosine kinase (LCK) is a lymphoid-specific, Src family protein tyrosine kinase that is known to play a pivotal role in T-cell activation and interact with the T-cell coreceptors, CD4 and CD8. It has been shown to be significantly down-regulated in Alzheimer disease (AD) hippocampus compared with non-demented controls. Furthermore, it is located in a previously identified genetic linkage region (1p34-36) associated with AD. Therefore, we consider it to be a candidate gene for AD. We examined the relationship between AD and the LCK and apolipoprotein E (APOE) genes in 376 AD (including 323 late-onset AD (LOAD) cases and 53 early-onset AD (EOAD) cases) and 378 non-demented controls using a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). The polymorphism in intron 1 (+ 6424 A/G) was significantly associated with AD risk. The odds ratio (OR) for total AD associated with the GG genotype was 1.41 (95% CI = 1.06-1.87) and that for LOAD was 1.37 (95%CI = 1.02-1.85), while that for APOE-ε4 was 5.06 (95% CI = 3.60-7.12). In the APOE-ε4 non-carrier subgroup, the GG genotype also showed significant association (OR = 1.66; 95% CI = 1.16-2.38). These results indicate that the LCK is a novel risk gene for AD regardless of the APOE genotype.