Determining association of rho kinase 1 gene polymorphisms with risk of Alzheimer's disease: a multicenter pilot study.

Background: In addition to the increasing evidence for a molecular mechanism of rho kinase 1 () in Alzheimer's disease (AD), there are several published studies regarding the relationship between gene polymorphisms and neurological diseases. However, it is unknown whether there is an association between the polymorphisms of and AD. We sought to identify the potential association between gene polymorphisms and AD in the Chinese Han population.

Methods: A total of 295 patients with AD and 206 healthy controls from multiple centers were enrolled in this study. Three single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs35996865, rs11873284, and rs2127958) in gene were analyzed using Sanger sequencing.

Results: We did not find any significant differences between AD and control groups with regards to the frequency of these three polymorphisms. Further, the three SNP genotype frequencies and allele frequencies did not show significant differences between patients of AD and controls in -stratified subjects (P>0.01). Additionally, the three SNPs did not show significant differences even when adopting a four-inheritance model by logistic regression.

Conclusions: This is the first multicenter pilot study to evaluate the contribution of genetic variance to AD risk. Our data demonstrated that the gene may not influence the risk of AD by interacting with among Chinese Han people.