Elevation of Peripheral BDNF Promoter Methylation Links to the Risk of Alzheimer's Disease

Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been known to play an important role in various mental disorders or diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). The aim of our study was to assess whether BDNF promoter methylation in peripheral blood was able to predict the risk of AD. A total of 44 AD patients and 62 age- and gender-matched controls were recruited in the current case-control study. Using the bisulphite pyrosequencing technology, we evaluated four CpG sites in the promoter of the BDNF. Our results showed that BDNF methylation was significantly higher in AD cases than in the controls (CpG1: p = 10.021; CpG2: p = 0.002; CpG3: p = 0.007; CpG4: p = 0.005; average methylation: p = 0.004). In addition, BDNF promoter methylation was shown to be significantly correlated with the levels of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), glucose, Lp(a), ApoE and ApoA in males (ALP: r = −0.308, p = 0.042; glucose: r = −0.383, p = 0.010; Lp(a): r = 0.333, p = 0.027; ApoE: r = −0.345, p = 0.032;), ApoA levels in females (r = 0.362, p = 0.033), and C Reactive Protein (CRP) levels in both genders (males: r = −0.373, p = 0.016; females: r = −0.399, p = 0.021). Our work suggested that peripheral BDNF promoter methylation might be a diagnostic marker of AD risk, although its underlying function remains to be elaborated in the future.