Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Genetic Research, JAMA, Karolinski Institute / 24.03.2026
Karolinska Institutet Study Finds APOE Genotype Influences Link Between Red Meat Consumption and Cognitive Decline
[caption id="attachment_72900" align="alignleft" width="200"] Jakob Norgren, Ph.D.[/caption]
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jakob Norgren | PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS) | Karolinska Institutet
Division of Clinical Geriatrics | Center for Alzheimer Research
Huddinge, Sweden
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: This study tested the hypothesis that people with APOE 3/4 and 4/4 would have a reduced risk of cognitive decline and dementia with higher meat intake, based on the fact that APOE4 is the evolutionarily oldest variant of the APOE gene and may have arisen during a period when our evolutionary ancestors ate a more animal-based diet.
Jakob Norgren, Ph.D.[/caption]
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jakob Norgren | PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS) | Karolinska Institutet
Division of Clinical Geriatrics | Center for Alzheimer Research
Huddinge, Sweden
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: This study tested the hypothesis that people with APOE 3/4 and 4/4 would have a reduced risk of cognitive decline and dementia with higher meat intake, based on the fact that APOE4 is the evolutionarily oldest variant of the APOE gene and may have arisen during a period when our evolutionary ancestors ate a more animal-based diet.
Dr. Belloy[/caption]
Michael E. Belloy, PhD
Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
Stanford University, Stanford, California
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Apolipoprotein E (APOE)*2 and APOE*4 are, respectively, the strongest protective and risk-increasing, genetic variants for late-onset Alzheimer disease. As such, one’s APOE genotype is highly relevant towards clinical trial design and Alzheimer’s disease research. However, most insights so far are focused on the associations of these APOE genotypes with Alzheimer’s disease risk in non-Hispanic white individuals.
One important aspect of our work is that we really increased sample sizes for non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and East Asian individuals, so that we now have better understanding of the associations of APOE genotypes with Alzheimer’s disease risk in these groups. In complement, we also did the largest investigation to date on the role of ancestry on the associations of APOE genotypes with Alzheimer’s disease risk. The scale of our study was thus a critical factor in generating novel insights.
