Increasing evidence shows that sortilin (encoded by SORT1 gene), a member of the vacuolar protein sorting 10 family of sorting receptors, can modulate amyloid-β peptides (Aβ) metabolism and clearance, as well as mediate the neurotoxicity of the Aβ oligomer and proneurotrophins, thus playing diverse roles in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. To assess the association between single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the SORT1 gene and sporadic Alzheimer's disease (sAD) in the Chinese Han population, a case-control study was carried out including 220 sAD patients and 245 controls. One tag SNP was selected from the entire SORT1 gene through construction of linkage disequilibrium blocks, and three SNPs located in the vicinity of SORT1 that affect its expression were also selected. The four target SNPs were genotyped using a multiplex PCR-ligase detection reaction method, yielding no significant association between them or haplotypes containing three of them, and the risk of sAD. The results of this study indicate that polymorphisms of the SORT1 gene are unlikely to confer the risk of sAD in the Chinese Han population.