The most significant gene association in GTEx data was for APOE; genetic variants associated with increased Alzheimer’s disease risk are predicted to downregulate expression levels of APOE in three peripheral tissues, including the sun-exposed skin (Z = 19.50, P = 1.03 × 10−84) and the non-sun-exposed skin (− 16.56, P = 1.27 × 10−61) (Table 1; Supplementary Table S3) after multiple testing correction (Bonferroni correction for 186,230 tests [0.05/186,230] P < 2.68 × 10−7). Here, APOE is linked to early-onset autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease.