Top Alzheimer's disease risk allele frequencies differ in HABS‐HD Mexican‐ versus Non‐Hispanic White Americans

Abstract INTRODUCTION: Here we evaluate frequencies of the top 10 Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk alleles for late‐onset AD in Mexican American (MA) and non‐Hispanic White (NHW) American participants enrolled in the Health and Aging Brain Study–Health Disparities Study cohort. METHODS: Using DNA extracted from this community‐based diverse population, we calculated the genotype frequencies in each population to determine whether a significant difference is detected between the different ethnicities. DNA genotyping was performed per manufacturers’ protocols. RESULTS: Allele and genotype frequencies for 9 of the 11 single nucleotide polymorphisms (two apolipoprotein E variants, CR1, BIN1, DRB1, NYAP1, PTK2B, FERMT2, and ABCA7) differed significantly between MAs and NHWs. DISCUSSION: The significant differences in frequencies of top AD risk alleles observed here across MAs and NHWs suggest that ethnicity‐specific genetic risks for AD exist. Given our results, we are advancing additional projects to further elucidate ethnicity‐specific differences in AD.