Fibre intake is associated with a lower risk of developing cognitive decline in those old people with the Apolipoprotein E ApoE ε4 genotype, regarded as a genetic risk factor linked to the development of Alzheimer's disease. This is stated in a study conducted by the Research Group on Biomarkers and Nutritional and Food Metabolomics of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Health Sciences of the University of Barcelona and the CIBER on Fragility and Ageing (CIBERFES).
The study, published in the journal Age and Ageing, is led by Professor Cristina Andrés-Lacueva, from the Institute on Nutrition and Food Safety Research (INSA-UB), the Food and Nutrition Torribera Campus of the UB and CIBERFES. It is based on the InCHIANTI project, a study carried out in 1,139 adults aged over 65 in two areas of Tuscany. In particular, the study included 848 volunteers (56% were women), of an average age of 74, to study their diet, cognitive state and other health parameters every three years, for fifteen years.
Apolipoprotein E: different genetic variants
Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is a multifunctional protein synthetized and secreted by several cells (hepatocytes, adipocytes, etc.). the ApoE gene, which in humans is found in the chromosome 19, is a polymorphic one and has three codominant alleles (ε2, ε3 i ε4) which lead to different haplotypes or genetic variants.
