Association of IL-12A and IL-12B polymorphisms with Alzheimer's disease susceptibility in a Han Chinese population

•IL-12 contributes to the pathogenesis of AD.•SNPs within IL-12A and IL-12B are associated with the risk of LOAD.•Combined effects of SNPs within IL-12A and IL-12B on LOAD risk are observed.

As a pro-inflammatory cytokine belonging to the interleukin (IL)-1 family, IL-12 is recently found to be involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we investigated the relations of three potentially functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in IL-12A (rs2243115 and rs568408) and IL-12B (rs3212227) with late-onset AD (LOAD) risk in a Northern Han Chinese cohort containing 1133 patients and 1158 healthy controls. Our findings indicated that these SNPs in IL-12A and IL-12B can individually and jointly contribute to LOAD risk in Han Chinese, implying that the genes encoding IL-12 subunits represent novel genetic risk factors for LOAD susceptibility.