[Phenotypes of oxidation and acetylation in Alzheimer's disease--preliminary report].

AIM The relationship between genetically determined polymorphic oxidation and acetylation and susceptibility to some disease has aroused much interest. The aim of our study was to evaluate whether patients with Alzheimer's disease differ from healthy persons in their ability to oxidize sparteine and acetylate sulphadimidine as model substance. METHOD Oxidation and acetylation phenotype were estimated in 20 patients with Alzheimer's disease. The control group consisted of 160 healthy volunteers for comparison of oxidation phenotype and 45 healthy subjects for comparison of acetylation phenotype. RESULTS The phenotyping of oxidation revealed two distinct populations among 20 patients with Alzheimer's disease: 19 persons (95%) were extensive metabolizers (EMs) of sparteine and 1 person (5%) was a poor metabolizer (PMs). In 160 healthy persons, 146 persons (91.2%) were extensive metabolizers of sparteine and 14 persons (8.8%) were poor metabolizers. The difference between the frequency distribution of PMs and EMs in healthy persons and in patients with Alzheimer's disease was not statistically significant. The phenotyping of acetylation showed that among 20 patients with Alzheimer's disease 10 persons (50%) were rapid acetylators and 10 persons (50%) were slow acetylators. In 45 healthy subjects the phenotype of rapid acetylation was observed in 23 persons (5 1%) and slow acetylation in 22 persons (49%). Our study showed a lack of statistically significant differences between the percentage of rapid acetylators (51%) and of slow acetylators (49%) in the control group of healthy volunteers and in the group ofAlzheimer's disease. CONCLUSION The results of our study may suggest that phenotypes of oxidation and acetylation are not associated with risk of the development of Alzheimer's disease.