2010/02/04 by Reinaldo B. Oriá, Peter D. Patrick, Mônica Oliveira Batista Oriá +7 · 1 citation
Nursing · Medicine · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Psychology · #Child Nutrition and Water Access #Birth, Development, and Health #Digestive system and related health #Malnutrition #Diarrhea #Diarrheal diseases #Medicine #Environmental health #Cognitive development #Early childhood #Cognition #Gerontology #Psychology #Developmental psychology #Psychiatry #Pathology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1590/s0100-879x2010007500003
openalex publication_date 2010/02/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
A series of studies have shown that the heavy burdens of diarrheal diseases in the first 2 formative years of life in children living in urban shanty towns have negative effects on physical and cognitive development lasting into later childhood. We have shown that APOE4 is relatively common in shanty town children living in Brazil (13.4%) and suggest that APOE4 has a protective role in cognitive development as well as weight-for-height in children with heavy burdens of diarrhea in early childhood (64/123; 52%), despite being a marker for cognitive decline with Alzheimer's and cardiovascular diseases later in life. APOE2 frequency was higher among children with heaviest diarrhea burdens during the first 2 years of life, as detected by PCR using the restriction fragment length polymorphism method, raising the possibility that ApoE-cholesterol balance might be critical for growth and cognitive development under the stress of heavy diarrhea burdens and when an enriched fat diet is insufficient. These findings provide a potential explanation for the survival advantage in evolution of genes, which might raise cholesterol levels during heavy stress of diarrhea burdens and malnutrition early in life.