ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder in humans and presents a major health problem throughout the world. The etiology of AD is complex, and many factors are implicated, including mitochondria. Mitochondrial alteration has been proposed as a possible cause of AD. Therefore, several studies have focused on finding an association between inherited mitochondrial DNA variants and AD onset. METHODS: In this study, we looked, for the first time, for a potential association between mitochondrial haplogroups or polymorphisms and AD in the Tunisian population. We also evaluated the distribution of the major genetic risk factor for AD, the apolipoprotein E epsilon 4 (APOE ε4), in this population. In total, 159 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of mitochondrial DNA haplogroups were genotyped in 254 individuals (58 patients and 196 controls). An additional genotyping of APOE ε4 was performed. RESULTS: No significant association between mitochondrial haplogroups and AD was found. However, two individual SNPs, A5656G (p = 0.03821, OR = 10.46) and A13759G (p = 0.03719, OR = 10.78), showed a significant association with AD. APOE 4 was confirmed as a risk factor for AD (p = 0.000014). CONCLUSION: Our findings may confirm the absence of a relation between mitochondrial haplogroups and AD and support the possible involvement of some inherited variants in the pathogenicity of AD.
Subject(s)
Alzheimer Disease , DNA, Mitochondrial , Alleles , Alzheimer Disease/epidemiology , Alzheimer Disease/genetics , Apolipoprotein E4/genetics , Apolipoproteins E/genetics , Case-Control Studies , DNA, Mitochondrial/genetics , Genetic Predisposition to Disease , Genotype , Humans , Mitochondria/genetics , Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide/genetics , Tunisia/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Behçet's disease (BD) is a multisystem vascular inflammatory disease with several clinical manifestations. Intracranial aneurysms are an extremely rare but nevertheless severe complication of BD. We report a case of a 44-year-old man. The diagnosis of BD was made based on the presence of recurrent oral aphthous ulcers and positive human leukocyte antigen (HLA-) B51 in the absence of evidence of other diseases. MRI showed an ancient ischemic right capsulolenticular lesion, subacute white matter hypersignals of the left capsule lenticular region, and multiple arterial aneurysms. The patient underwent two-month systemic high-dose corticosteroids and immunosuppressive therapy associated with severe neurological deficiency upon admission and severe impairment upon discharge. A thorough review of the literature showed 20 case reports of intracranial aneurysms in BD.
