Lack of association of the interleukin-1beta gene polymorphism with Alzheimer's disease in a Chinese population

Over the past few years, a number of genetic risk factors for Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been proposed. IL-1beta gene polymorphism such as IL-1beta-511 and IL-1beta+3953 have been reported to be associated with the risk of AD in a number of studies in a Caucasian population. However, conflicting results have been reported recently which showed that IL-1beta was not universally associated with the risk of AD in other populations. In order to validate these associations, we investigated the IL-1beta polymorphisms (IL-1beta-31, IL-1beta-511 and IL-1beta+3953) in a Chinese population, which has not been studied before. In our study, the allelic frequencies of IL-1beta-31C, IL-1beta-511T and IL-1beta+3953T for the AD group were 0.49, 0.57 and 0.03, respectively. The allelic frequencies of IL-1beta-31C, IL-1beta-511T and IL-1beta+3953T for the control group were 0.53, 0.61 and 0.03, respectively. No significant difference was detected in the genotypic or allelic frequencies (p > 0.25). We conclude that IL-1beta polymorphism is unlikely to be a significant risk factor for AD in the Chinese Population.