Entity Detail — Knowledge Graph Node
This page aggregates everything SciDEX knows about APOE: its mechanistic relationships (Knowledge Graph edges), hypotheses targeting it, analyses mentioning it, and supporting scientific papers. The interactive graph below shows its immediate neighbors. All content is AI-synthesized from peer-reviewed literature.
Apolipoprotein E (APOE) is the primary cholesterol carrier in the brain, essential for lipid transport, neuronal repair, and synaptic maintenance. The APOE gene has three common alleles: APOE2, APOE3, and APOE4. APOE4 is the strongest genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease, increasing risk 3-15 fold depending on copy number. APOE4 impairs amyloid-beta clearance, promotes neuroinflammation, disrupts blood-brain barrier integrity, and reduces cerebrovascular function. APOE2 is protective, enhancing amyloid clearance and reducing tau pathology. Therapeutic strategies include APOE4 structure correctors, gene therapy to convert APOE4 to APOE3, and anti-APOE4 antibodies.
AI-generated illustration · click image to enlarge
Regenerate portrait ↻| Gene Symbol | APOE |
| Full Name | Apolipoprotein E |
| Chromosome | 19q13.32 |
| Target Class | Ligand |
| Function | It binds to the LDL receptor family to facilitate uptake of lipoprotein particles. |
| Mechanism of Action | Protein-protein interaction modulator or lipid metabolism enhancer |
| Druggability | Medium (0.47) |
| Clinical Stage | Phase II |
| Molecular Weight | 34 kDa |
| Pathways | Amyloid, Autophagy, Blood-Brain Barrier, Brain Lipid Metabolism, Cholesterol |
| GeneCards | APOE |
| Human Protein Atlas | APOE |
| Associated Diseases | AD, Age Of Onset, Aging, alpha-synucleinopathies, Als |
| Known Drugs/Compounds | atherogenic lipoproteins, Crispr, curcumin, CURCUMIN |
| Interactions | A2M, ABC7 transporter, ABCA1, abca2, ABCA2, ABCA7 |
| SciDEX Target | View Target Profile (8 clinical trials) |
| SciDEX Hypotheses | Prime Editing Precision Correction of APOE4 to APO Selective APOE4 Degradation via Proteolysis Target Competitive APOE4 Domain Stabilization Peptides (+22 more) |
| KG Connections | 4615 knowledge graph edges |
| Databases | GeneCardsUniProtNCBI GeneHPASTRING |
Knowledge base pages for this entity
graph TD
subgraph Pathology["Pathology"]
APOE["APOE"] -->|"associated with"| NEURODEGENERATION["NEURODEGENERATION"]
APOE["APOE"] -->|"associated with"| Atherosclerosis_1["Atherosclerosis"]
APOE["APOE"] -->|"associated with"| Alzheimer_3["Alzheimer"]
GENES["GENES"] -->|"associated with"| APOE["APOE"]
APOE4_4["APOE4"] -->|"associated with"| APOE["APOE"]
ALZHEIMER_S_DISEASE["ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE"] -->|"associated with"| APOE["APOE"]
end
subgraph Therapeutic["Therapeutic"]
APOE["APOE"] -->|"therapeutic target"| Alzheimer["Alzheimer"]
end
subgraph Signaling["Signaling"]
APOE["APOE"] -.->|"inhibits"| Atherosclerosis["Atherosclerosis"]
APOE["APOE"] -.->|"inhibits"| Als["Als"]
APOE["APOE"] -.->|"inhibits"| Cholesterol["Cholesterol"]
APOE["APOE"] -->|"regulates"| Als_2["Als"]
APOE["APOE"] -.->|"inhibits"| Inflammation["Inflammation"]
TREM2["TREM2"] -->|"activates"| APOE["APOE"]
APOE4["APOE4"] -->|"activates"| APOE["APOE"]
INFLAMMATION["INFLAMMATION"] -.->|"inhibits"| APOE["APOE"]
end
style APOE fill:#4a1a6b,stroke:#4fc3f7,stroke-width:3px,color:#e0e0e0,font-weight:bold
style NEURODEGENERATION fill:#ef5350,stroke:#4fc3f7,stroke-width:1px,color:#e0e0e0
style Alzheimer fill:#ef5350,stroke:#4fc3f7,stroke-width:1px,color:#e0e0e0
style Atherosclerosis fill:#ef5350,stroke:#4fc3f7,stroke-width:1px,color:#e0e0e0
style Als fill:#ef5350,stroke:#4fc3f7,stroke-width:1px,color:#e0e0e0
style Cholesterol fill:#1b5e20,stroke:#4fc3f7,stroke-width:1px,color:#e0e0e0
style Atherosclerosis_1 fill:#ef5350,stroke:#4fc3f7,stroke-width:1px,color:#e0e0e0
style Als_2 fill:#ef5350,stroke:#4fc3f7,stroke-width:1px,color:#e0e0e0
style Inflammation fill:#ef5350,stroke:#4fc3f7,stroke-width:1px,color:#e0e0e0
style Alzheimer_3 fill:#ef5350,stroke:#4fc3f7,stroke-width:1px,color:#e0e0e0
style TREM2 fill:#006494,stroke:#4fc3f7,stroke-width:1px,color:#e0e0e0
style GENES fill:#4a1a6b,stroke:#4fc3f7,stroke-width:1px,color:#e0e0e0
style APOE4 fill:#4a1a6b,stroke:#4fc3f7,stroke-width:1px,color:#e0e0e0
style APOE4_4 fill:#4a1a6b,stroke:#4fc3f7,stroke-width:1px,color:#e0e0e0
style INFLAMMATION fill:#4a1a6b,stroke:#4fc3f7,stroke-width:1px,color:#e0e0e0
style ALZHEIMER_S_DISEASE fill:#4a1a6b,stroke:#4fc3f7,stroke-width:1px,color:#e0e0e0| Target | Relation | Type | Str |
|---|---|---|---|
| benchmark_ot_ad_answer_key:APOE | data_in | dataset_row | 0.00 |
| ad_genetic_risk_loci:APOE | data_in | dataset_row | 0.00 |
| benchmark_ot_ad_answer_key:APOE | data_in | dataset_row | 0.00 |
| TAU | associated_with | gene | 1.00 |
| tau | associated_with | protein | 1.00 |
| Alzheimer | associated_with | disease | 1.00 |
| PSEN1 | associated_with | gene | 1.00 |
| Als | inhibits | disease | 1.00 |
| ds-83b31ef18d49 | provides_data_for | dataset | 1.00 |
| Dementia | associated_with | disease | 1.00 |
| ds-db4a006ea647 | provides_data_for | dataset | 1.00 |
| APP | associated_with | gene | 1.00 |
| DEMENTIA | associated_with | gene | 1.00 |
| Atherosclerosis | inhibits | disease | 1.00 |
| Alzheimer | therapeutic_target | disease | 1.00 |
| Atherosclerosis | activates | disease | 1.00 |
| Lipid Metabolism | associated_with | pathway | 1.00 |
| ds-f50762b67605 | provides_data_for | dataset | 1.00 |
| Cholesterol | inhibits | pathway | 1.00 |
| Inflammation | therapeutic_target | disease | 1.00 |
| Inflammation | inhibits | disease | 1.00 |
| ASTROCYTES | associated_with | cell_type | 1.00 |
| Neuroinflammation | regulates | disease | 1.00 |
| MICROGLIA | associated_with | gene | 1.00 |
| Als | regulates | disease | 1.00 |
| NEUROINFLAMMATION | regulates | gene | 1.00 |
| Alzheimer | regulates | disease | 1.00 |
| Inflammation | regulates | disease | 1.00 |
| Alzheimer | expressed_in | disease | 1.00 |
| lipid_metabolism | regulates | pathway | 1.00 |
| Inflammation | activates | disease | 1.00 |
| Cardiovascular | activates | disease | 1.00 |
| Alzheimer | activates | disease | 1.00 |
| neurodegeneration | regulates | process | 1.00 |
| Als | associated_with | disease | 1.00 |
| neurodegeneration | associated_with | disease | 1.00 |
| Atherosclerosis | associated_with | disease | 1.00 |
| Als | therapeutic_target | disease | 1.00 |
| Als | activates | disease | 1.00 |
| Neurodegeneration | activates | disease | 1.00 |
| Tumor | associated_with | disease | 1.00 |
| Aging | associated_with | disease | 1.00 |
| Cholesterol | activates | pathway | 1.00 |
| Inflammation | associated_with | disease | 1.00 |
| Neurodegeneration | regulates | disease | 1.00 |
| Neurodegeneration | associated_with | disease | 1.00 |
| TREM2 | associated_with | gene | 1.00 |
| NEURODEGENERATION | associated_with | disease | 1.00 |
| ALZHEIMER | associated_with | gene | 1.00 |
| Cholesterol | associated_with | pathway | 1.00 |
| Source | Relation | Type | Str |
|---|---|---|---|
| ad_genetic_risk_loci:APOE | data_in | dataset_row | 0.00 |
| entities-app-protein | interacts_with | wiki | 0.00 |
| entities-microglia-in-neurodegeneration | interacts_with | wiki | 0.00 |
| benchmark_ot_ad_answer_key:APOE | data_in | dataset_row | 0.00 |
| benchmark_ot_ad_answer_key:APOE | data_in | dataset_row | 0.00 |
| ad_genetic_risk_loci:APOE | data_in | dataset_row | 0.00 |
| INFLAMMATION | inhibits | gene | 1.00 |
| LDL | inhibits | gene | 1.00 |
| ALZHEIMER | activates | gene | 1.00 |
| ds-db4a006ea647 | data_in | dataset | 1.00 |
| NEURODEGENERATION | regulates | gene | 1.00 |
| INFLAMMATION | associated_with | gene | 1.00 |
| ALZHEIMER | associated_with | gene | 1.00 |
| NEURODEGENERATION | associated_with | gene | 1.00 |
| TAU | associated_with | gene | 1.00 |
| ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE | associated_with | gene | 1.00 |
| ds-f50762b67605 | data_in | dataset | 1.00 |
| INFLAMMATION | activates | gene | 1.00 |
| APOE4 | associated_with | gene | 1.00 |
| ds-83b31ef18d49 | data_in | dataset | 1.00 |
| AMYLOID | associated_with | gene | 1.00 |
| ALZHEIMER | targets | gene | 1.00 |
| ALZHEIMER | regulates | gene | 1.00 |
| ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE | targets | gene | 1.00 |
| APOE4 | activates | gene | 1.00 |
| AGING | associated_with | gene | 1.00 |
| GENES | associated_with | gene | 1.00 |
| TREM2 | activates | protein | 1.00 |
| APOE4 | expressed_in | gene | 1.00 |
| NEURODEGENERATION | activates | gene | 1.00 |
| ASTROCYTES | activates | gene | 1.00 |
| APOE3 | activates | gene | 1.00 |
| Astrocytes | expressed_in | cell_type | 0.95 |
| h-51e7234f | targets | hypothesis | 0.95 |
| RELN | associated_with | entity | 0.95 |
| 30692699 | attenuates | paper | 0.90 |
| 38824138 | modulates | paper | 0.90 |
| 30692699 | is a direct checkpoint inhibitor of | paper | 0.90 |
| Crispr | targets | drug | 0.90 |
| 29563219 | lipidates | paper | 0.90 |
| h-42f50a4a | targets | hypothesis | 0.90 |
| h-d8f2bbc9 | targets | hypothesis | 0.90 |
| 24(S)-hydroxycholesterol | upregulates | compound | 0.90 |
| h-69bde12f | targets | hypothesis | 0.90 |
| h-b948c32c | targets | hypothesis | 0.90 |
| h-trem2-f48baa0c | targets_gene | hypothesis | 0.90 |
| h-trem2-6a46fa2c | targets_gene | hypothesis | 0.90 |
| h-64d92165 | targets_gene | hypothesis | 0.90 |
| h-c9c79e3e | targets | hypothesis | 0.90 |
| h-11795af0 | targets | hypothesis | 0.90 |
Hypotheses where this entity is a therapeutic target
Scientific analyses that reference this entity
neurodegeneration | 2026-04-26 | 8 hypotheses Top: 0.990
molecular biology | 2026-04-24 | 6 hypotheses Top: 0.707
molecular biology | 2026-04-21 | 1 hypotheses Top: 0.582
neurodegeneration | 2026-04-17 | 7 hypotheses Top: 0.685
neurodegeneration | 2026-04-16 | 1 hypotheses Top: 0.559
Experimental studies targeting or related to this entity
| Experiment | Type | Disease | Score | Feasibility | Model | Status | Est. Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KEEPS Continuation: Long-term effects of menopausal hormone therapy on | clinical | Alzheimer's disease | 0.950 | 0.00 | recently menopausal women with | proposed | N/A |
| Dairy intake and dementia risk in Malmö Diet and Cancer cohort | clinical | Alzheimer's disease | 0.950 | 0.00 | Swedish community-based adults | proposed | N/A |
| GWAS of plasma NfL in East Asian cohort | exploratory | Alzheimer's disease | 0.950 | 0.00 | human patients - East Asian co | proposed | N/A |
| GWAS of plasma pTau217 in East Asian cohort | exploratory | Alzheimer's disease | 0.950 | 0.00 | human patients - East Asian co | proposed | N/A |
| GWAS of plasma pTau181 in East Asian cohort | exploratory | Alzheimer's disease | 0.950 | 0.00 | human patients - East Asian co | proposed | N/A |
| GWAS of plasma GFAP in East Asian cohort | exploratory | Alzheimer's disease | 0.950 | 0.00 | human patients - East Asian co | proposed | N/A |
| iPSC-NPC effects on astrocytes in vitro ICH model | exploratory | intracerebral hemorrhage | 0.900 | 0.00 | in vitro ICH cell culture mode | completed | N/A |
| GWAS of composite biomarker score | exploratory | Alzheimer's disease | 0.900 | 0.00 | human patients - East Asian co | proposed | N/A |
| RBG treatment in ApoE-/- atherosclerosis mouse model | validation | atherosclerosis | 0.900 | 0.00 | ApoE-/- mice | proposed | N/A |
| Reelin glycoprotein treatment rescue experiment | validation | Alzheimer's disease | 0.900 | 0.00 | mice | proposed | N/A |
| ABCA1 rs2230806 polymorphism association with dementia risk in hyperli | exploratory | dementia, Alzheimer's disease | 0.900 | 0.00 | human patients | proposed | N/A |
| AMPK knockdown validation experiment | exploratory | intracerebral hemorrhage | 0.880 | 0.00 | astrocyte cell culture | proposed | N/A |
| P2RY12-MTOR pathway interaction in VSMCs | exploratory | atherosclerosis | 0.850 | 0.00 | cultured VSMCs | proposed | N/A |
| iPSC-NPC transplantation in ICH animal model | validation | intracerebral hemorrhage | 0.850 | 0.00 | animal ICH model | proposed | N/A |
| APOE4 association with TDP-43 pathology in AD | exploratory | Alzheimer's disease | 0.750 | 0.00 | human patients | proposed | N/A |
| s:** - Biochemical binding assays measuring PROTAC selectivity for APO | falsification | Neurodegeneration | 0.400 | 0.50 | cell_line | proposed | $100,000 |
| Why Does Amyloid Removal Only Slow Decline 27%? — Mechanistic investig | clinical | Alzheimer's Disease | 0.400 | 0.50 | human | proposed | $7,100,000 |
Scientific publications cited in analyses involving this entity
| Title & PMID | Authors | Journal | Year | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trehalose induces autophagy via lysosomal-mediated TFEB activation in models of [PMID:30335591] | Rusmini P, Cortese K, Crippa V, Cristofa | Autophagy | 2019 | 2 |
| Amelioration of Tau and ApoE4-linked glial lipid accumulation and neurodegenerat [PMID:37995685] | Litvinchuk A, Suh JH, Guo JL, Lin K, Dav | Neuron | 2024 | 1 |
| The cell biology of APOE in the brain. [PMID:37805344] | Windham IA, Cohen S | Trends Cell Biol | 2024 | 1 |
| The APOE-R136S mutation protects against APOE4-driven Tau pathology, neurodegene [PMID:37957317] | Maxine R Nelson, Peng Liu, Ayushi Agrawa | Nature neuroscience | 2023 | 1 |
| APOE and Alzheimer's disease: advances in genetics, pathophysiology, and therape [PMID:33340485] | Serrano-Pozo A, Das S, Hyman BT | Lancet Neurol | 2021 | 1 |
| Lysosome-targeting chimaeras for degradation of extracellular proteins. [PMID:32728216] | Banik SM, Pedram K, Wisnovsky S, Ahn G, | Nature | 2020 | 1 |
| Human and mouse single-nucleus transcriptomics reveal TREM2-dependent and TREM2- [PMID:31932797] | Zhou Y, Song WM, Andhey PS, Swain A, Lev | Nat Med | 2020 | 1 |
| Alzheimer Disease: An Update on Pathobiology and Treatment Strategies. [PMID:31564456] | Long JM, Holtzman DM | Cell | 2019 | 1 |
| Apolipoprotein E and Alzheimer disease: pathobiology and targeting strategies. [PMID:31367008] | Yamazaki Y, Zhao N, Caulfield TR, Liu CC | Nat Rev Neurol | 2019 | 1 |
| Plasma GFAP outperforms CSF GFAP in detecting amyloid pathology and is associate [PMID:41905188] | Cetindag AC, Schipke CG, Esselmann H, Kr | The journal of prevention of A | 2026 | 0 |
| Modulation of apolipoprotein E receptor-2 by ApoE4, amyloid β-peptide, reelin, a [PMID:41858499] | ["Barger S", "Moerman-Herzog A"] | Frontiers in molecular neurosc | 2026 | 0 |
| Replating Induces mTOR-Dependent Rescue of Protein Synthesis in Charcot-Marie-To [PMID:41876253] | Koenig J, McGuire A, Homedan Y, Alberhas | eNeuro | 2026 | 0 |
| ASS1 Promotes Atherosclerotic Inflammation Through the NLRP3/IL-33/ST2 Axis in O [PMID:41914296] | Wu S, Han F, Qiao Z, Yuan S, Bian X, Zha | Frontiers in bioscience (Landm | 2026 | 0 |
| S-equol promotes ferroptosis in triple negative breast cancer by coordinating NC [PMID:41925800] | Ni F, Huang Z, Cui Y, Huang P, Xue Z, Hu | Molecular and cellular biochem | 2026 | 0 |
| Modulating LRP1 Pathways in Alzheimer's Disease: Mechanistic Insights and Emergi [PMID:41772271] | Mushtaq T, Hameed H, Khan MA, Tariq U, H | Molecular neurobiology | 2026 | 0 |
| CRISPR-based correction of apolipoprotein E4 in Alzheimer's disease: Therapeutic [PMID:41812941] | ["Wang M", "Niu D", "Zhang Q", "Tang Y", | International journal of biolo | 2026 | 0 |
| Multimodal biomarker AI techniques for early neurocognitive disorder diagnosis: [PMID:41921464] | Catino F, Castellana F, Zupo R, Giannocc | Artificial intelligence in med | 2026 | 0 |
| Neuroprotective Effects of Berberine Chloride Against the Aluminium Chloride-Ind [PMID:40014257] | Uvarajan D, Gnanarajan R, Karuppusamy PA | Mol Biotechnol | 2026 | 0 |
| Perioperative polygenic and APOE-based genetic risk assessment for neurocognitiv [PMID:40562635] | Thedim M, Hu J, Maher M, Wiener-Kronish | Br J Anaesth | 2026 | 0 |
| Increased genetic protection against Alzheimer's disease in centenarians. [PMID:40615639] | Bae H, Song Z, Ali A, Sasaki T, Tesi N e | Geroscience | 2026 | 0 |
Multi-agent debates referencing this entity
closed · Rounds: 4 · Score: 0.00 · 2026-04-27
closed · Rounds: 4 · Score: 0.00 · 2026-04-27
closed · Rounds: 4 · Score: 0.00 · 2026-04-27
active · Rounds: 4 · Score: 0.52 · 2026-04-27
active · Rounds: 4 · Score: 0.72 · 2026-04-27
closed · Rounds: 4 · Score: 0.00 · 2026-04-27
closed · Rounds: 4 · Score: 0.00 · 2026-04-27
closed · Rounds: 4 · Score: 0.50 · 2026-04-26
closed · Rounds: 4 · Score: 0.50 · 2026-04-26
closed · Rounds: 4 · Score: 0.50 · 2026-04-26
Hypotheses and analyses mentioning APOE in their description or question text
Score: 0.795 · neurodegeneration · 2026-04-02
## Mechanistic Overview Selective APOE4 Degradation via Proteolysis Targeting Chimeras (PROTACs) starts from the claim t
Score: 0.784 · neurodegeneration · 2026-04-02
## Mechanistic Overview Competitive APOE4 Domain Stabilization Peptides starts from the claim that modulating APOE withi
Score: 0.766 · neurodegeneration · 2026-04-15
## Mechanistic Overview HDL/apoE Particle Remodeling as a Therapeutic Switch for CAA Prevention starts from the claim th
Score: 0.765 · neurodegeneration · 2026-04-02
## Mechanistic Overview APOE4 Allosteric Rescue via Small Molecule Chaperones starts from the claim that modulating APOE
Score: 0.758 · neurodegeneration · 2026-04-02
**Molecular Mechanism and Rationale** The apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) variant represents the most significant genetic ris
Score: 0.758 · neuroscience · 2026-04-22
## Mechanistic Overview APOE4 astrocytes exhibit impaired cholesterol efflux via ABCA1/ABCG1 transporters, driving intra
Score: 0.757 · Alzheimer's disease · 2026-04-04
## Mechanistic Overview TREM2-APOE4 Co-targeting — Simultaneous Correction of Lipid Sensing and Clearance Deficits start
Score: 0.743 · Alzheimer's Disease · 2026-04-02
## Mechanistic Overview APOE Isoform Expression Across Glial Subtypes starts from the claim that modulating APOE within
Score: 0.742 · neurodegeneration · 2026-04-02
## Mechanistic Overview APOE4-Selective Lipid Nanoemulsion Therapy starts from the claim that modulating APOE within the
Score: 0.741 · neurodegeneration · 2026-04-02
## Mechanistic Overview APOE-TREM2 Interaction Modulation starts from the claim that modulating TREM2 within the disease
Score: 0.728 · neuroscience · 2026-04-22
**Molecular Mechanism and Rationale** The molecular basis for selective liver X receptor beta (LXRβ/NR1H2) agonism in A
Score: 0.724 · neurodegeneration · 2026-04-02
## Mechanistic Overview Proteostasis Enhancement via APOE Chaperone Targeting starts from the claim that modulating HSPA
Score: 0.723 · neurodegeneration · 2026-04-02
## Mechanistic Overview Interfacial Lipid Mimetics to Disrupt Domain Interaction starts from the claim that modulating A
Score: 0.721 · neurodegeneration · 2026-04-14
## Mechanistic Overview LXRβ-Selective Agonism as a Precision Therapeutic for APOE4-Driven Myelin Deficits starts from t