Genetic influences of PROK2 associated genes affecting Alzheimer’s disease outcomes
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The Honors project is potentially the most valuable component of an Honors education. Typically Honors students choose to do their projects in their area of study, but some will pick a topic of interest unrelated to their major.
The Honors Program requires that the project be presented at a poster presentation event. Poster presentations are held each semester. Most students present during their senior year, but may do so earlier if their honors project has been completed.
This site presents project descriptions and selected posters for Honors projects completed since the Fall 2015 semester.
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Abstract
Background: Prokineticin (PROK2) is a secreted protein expressed in the small intestine. It has also been associated with protecting brain cells by stimulates neurons to produce more mitochondria. Methods: Exploratory analysis was conducted in PLINK to extract SNP’s in Chromosome 3 (location of PROK2) that are related to bioenergetics and metabolism from the ADNI data, which contains longitudinal data including demographic, cognitive, neuroimaging, and biochemical data. Afterwards, the minor allele information was obtained for each of the SNPs. Then, linear mixed modeling in SPSS 23 was done to test associations between these genes associated with PROK2 and Alzheimer’s disease outcomes. Finally, SPM 12 was used to regress brain volume against genotype information to determine how these genetic factors alter brain structure. Results: SPSS 23 results did not show a significant association between subjects that presented the minor allele in the SNPs related to PROK2. SPM12 brain volume regression results showed a significant association between a decrease of grey matter in the brain and an increase in minor allele frequency for rs1512321 (Ke=648,459,459). A significant association was also found between an increased frequency in rs1512321 minor alleles and FDG (marker for tissue uptake of glucose) (Ke=723).