Ancestry-specific effects of APOE on Alzheimer Disease Endophenotypes

APOE*ε4 is the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), yet its effect varies across ancestral populations. As blood-based biomarkers increasingly inform AD diagnosis, failure to account for both APOE genotype and ancestry could lead to misinterpretation of biomarker profiles and inaccurate diagnostic classification. Understanding how ancestry modulates APOE effects is crucial for ensuring accurate biomarker-based assessments and AD diagnosis.

To determine whether genetic ancestry modulates APOE association with cognitive function, brain morphometry, and plasma biomarkers.

Cross-sectional analysis of community-dwelling older adults from the Health and Aging Brain Study-Health Disparities (HABS-HD) cohort (N = 2733). Participants spanning the cognitive spectrum underwent cognitive assessment, neuroimaging, plasma biomarker collection, and genome-wide genotyping from 2018 to 2023.

Cognitive performance (global cognition, memory, executive function, verbal ability), brain morphometry (cortical thickness, hippocampal volume), and plasma biomarkers (Aβ₄₂/Aβ₄₀, pTau₁₈₁, pTau_217, total tau, NfL).

In the full cohort, APOE ε4+ was associated with worse cognitive performance across all domains, reduced cortical thickness and hippocampal volume, lower Aβ₄₂/Aβ₄₀, and elevated pTau₁₈₁ and pTau₂₁₇. APOE ε2+ was associated with lower pTau₂₁₇. Ancestry-stratified analyses revealed attenuated ε4+ effects on pTau₂₁₇ and pTau₁₈₁ in African compared with European participants (~2.5-fold for both), with the pTau₂₁₇ difference surviving FDR correction. Compositional analysis confirmed that ε4+ effects on pTau₁₈₁ and pTau₂₁₇ strengthened with increasing European ancestry proportion. Local ancestry analysis showed ε4+ effects on pTau₂₁₇ were significantly attenuated in individuals with African local ancestry at the APOE locus. In contrast, ε4+ effects on Aβ₄₂/Aβ₄₀, cognition, and neuroimaging were largely consistent across ancestry groups. Meta-analysis with an independent multi-ancestry cohort replicated the attenuated pTau₁₈₁ findings.

Genetic ancestry modifies the effect of APOE on AD endophenotypes. In particular, African ancestry attenuates the association between APOE ε4+ and pTau₁₈₁ and pTau_217. Accurate AD diagnosis requires consideration of both APOE genotype and ancestry to avoid misclassification in biomarker-based evaluations.