Investigation of angiotensin – converting enzyme I/D polymorphism in patients with alzheimer's disease

Dementia is a common clinical syndrome that causes cognitive disorders and affects daily life significantly, and the risk of being seen increases significantly with aging. Although dementia is not a single disease type, it is the general name of the findings characterized by deterioration in mental abilities. Alzheimer's disease, which is a common type of dementia in the population, is a progressive neurological disease that occurs in individuals with the destruction of brain cells. Most patients who suffer from Alzheimer's Disease show the symptoms of this disease in their later ages, whereas the earliest sign being memory loss. Although recurring forgetfulness is observed in sick individuals, past memory is preserved. As the disease progresses, cognitive abilities decline as well as loss of aphasia and apraxia. Although the exact causes of Alzheimer's disease are not known, it is thought that genetic factors may play limited role in the occurrence of this patho- physiology. The angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) hydrolyzes peptide molecules and proteins by removing a dipeptide from the C terminus of polypeptides such as in the case of Angiotensin. As a result of previous studies, it has been observed that ACE can cleave amyloid beta peptides in vitro. It is known that amyloid beta plaques are an important factor in AD. Therefore, in previous studies it was asserted that ACE and ACE variants could be associated with Alzheimer's Disease. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the effect of ACE polymorphisms on the risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer's in Turkish and Mediterranean populations in samples taken from Alzheimer's patients and in conjunction with meta-analysis including samples from previous data sets. PCR studies revealed the presence of single nucleotide polymorphisms. Genetic variations were determined by Sanger sequencing from the samples with polymorphism. As a result of meta-analysis, it was determined that rs1799752 ACE polymorphisms were not associated with late-onset Alzheimer's disease in Turkish and Mediterranean populations.