rs118121717 (LINC02715): Incident Dementia GWAS

Key takeaways

• rs118121717 sits near LINC02715, a long intergenic non-coding RNA (lncRNA) gene, and was studied in a genome-wide search for genetic links to incident dementia in adults aged 75 and older
• The study tested over 14 million genetic variants in 424 dementia cases and 2,206 non-demented adults from community-based sites across the United States
• Other novel associations near non-coding RNA genes reached genome-wide significance in the same study, suggesting non-coding RNA regions may play a role in late-life dementia
• Evidence specific to rs118121717 is preliminary, with no independently replicated findings described in the available data
• The study's community-based design was intended to detect genetic signals in milder dementia cases that clinic-based case-control studies may miss

What the research says One genome-wide association study (GWAS) tested over 14 million genetic variants in 2,630 community-dwelling adults aged 75 to 99 - including 424 incident dementia cases and 2,206 non-demented individuals - examining genetic associations with incident dementia at four U.S. clinical sites, with LINC02715 (rs118121717) among the loci examined. The study confirmed the well-established APOE*4 association with dementia (odds ratio 2.22, p = 9.36E-14, stronger in females at odds ratio 2.72 than in males at 1.88) and identified novel genome-wide significant associations near several non-coding RNA genes, including both autosomal and male-specific loci. Specific association statistics for rs118121717 were not reported in the available study text.

Reported associations

• Incident dementia: rs118121717 near LINC02715 was examined as part of a GWAS of incident dementia in community-dwelling adults aged 75 to 99; specific effect size and p-value for this variant are not reported in the available study text

Evidence quality Evidence for this variant is limited to one GWAS conducted in a predominantly White sample (95.5%) of 2,630 older adults, comprising 424 incident dementia cases and 2,206 non-demented controls. This is a modest sample size by GWAS standards for complex traits, where hundreds of thousands of participants are commonly used to achieve reliable detection of common-variant effects. The community-based recruitment is a methodological strength, as it captures milder dementia presentations that are typically absent from clinic-derived samples; however, the findings may not generalize to all dementia subtypes or to more ancestrally diverse populations. Specific genome-wide association statistics for the locus were not reported in the available excerpt, and no independent replication at this locus is described in the provided material. Overall, the evidence base for this specific variant is preliminary and requires replication before any conclusion can be drawn.

Lifestyle considerations No lifestyle considerations on file for this variant.