Survival in Alzheimer's disease is shorter in women carrying heterozygosity at codon 129 of the PRNP gene and no APOE epsilon 4 allele.

We assessed the role of the APOE genotype and prion protein polymorphism at codon 129 in predicting the clinical duration of 92 neuropathologically confirmed sporadic Alzheimer's disease patients. Analyses of survival showed that the absence of the APOE epsilon 4 allele in heterozygous codon 129 PRNP carriers is a negative predictor of survival. When this subgroup of patients was stratified by sex, the effect of APOE was observed in women, but not in men.