Risk factors for Dementia in Down syndrome

Background Down syndrome (DS) is one of the most common mental retardation chromosomal disorder in Taiwan. Even though our healthcare system encourages Down syndrome screen，there is still a number of babies with DS delivered. DS babies will have be problems congenital anomalies and need to be paid more attention in education. When turning into adulthoods, early degeneration is a major concern, such as dementia. The cause of dementia in DS is not well delineated. In this study, we would like to evaluate the role of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) in DS with dementia. Method We compared the percentage of several SNPs in DS with and without dementia, including 12 SNPs in APOE、ESR2、CYP17 and CYP19 genes (rs405509, rs429358, rs7412, rs17766755,rs4365213, rs12435857, rs4986938, rs6163,rs3740397,rs10786712,rs743572, and rs1870049). ABDQ (Adaptive Behaviour Dementia Questionnaire) scores, age, sex, IQ, and behavior problems were also analyzed. Result Total 23 DS subjects and 49 healthy subjects were analyzed. The dementia in DS is positively correlated with behavioral problems, IQ, ABDQ scores (p<0.001). In addition, APOE