Association between H2 haplotype of microtubule associated protein tau gene (deletion / insertion) with Alzheimer Disease in Tunisian patients.

It is widely recognized that Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the main cause of dementia in the elderly. AD is typically characterized by the extraneuronal plaque made up essentially of the amyloid β peptide and intraneuronal tangles of hyperphosphorylated microtubule-associated protein. This study investigates the possible interaction between AD and the deletion/insertion polymorphism in intron 9 of the gene haplotype and state in a Tunisian AD cases population (n = 85) and control (n = 91). The H2/H2 genotype was higher in the AD group as compared to the controls (22.4% vs. 7.8%). The frequency of H2 allele is higher in the patients group, and the difference of allele frequency is statistically significant between the two groups (χ2 = 12.220, ). H2 allele is correlated with the female gender within the patient group (χ2 = 7.649, p = 0.006) H2 haplotype can be identified as a risk factor of AD in the studied Tunisian population and was associated to female gender. There is no significant correlation between the frequency of gene ins/del polymorphism and cognitive profile distribution in the patient group (p > 0.05).