Scientists Find Gene that is Linked to Alzheimer's
Finding genes that are involved in Alzheimer's may help identify who is at greatest risk of contracting the disease, and it may also help scientists develop new treatments in the future.
Although three genes have been found that cause a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's, the SORL1 gene is only the second one found so far that is associated with the more common late-onset Alzheimer's.
The new study builds on a previous one done earlier this year, which was a huge study involving 14 institutions around the world and 6,000 blood donors.
The new study confirmed the previous findings by using a genome dataset that was recently made publicly available online by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), a nonprofit research institute promoting genomics research. Genomics research looks at all the information in an organism's DNA as a whole, and the TGen dataset came from what's called a genome-wide association study, which involved rapidly scanning for markers in the complete DNA of many individuals in order to find genetic variations.
Scientists do not fully understand what causes Alzheimer's disease, but they do know that genetic factors can play a role. The earlier study found that people with Alzheimer's had less than half the amount of a particular type of protein that is made by the SORL1 gene than people who didn't have Alzheimer's. Low levels of the protein increase production of fragments that make up plaque in the brain.
The National Institute of Aging is part of the National Institutes of Health, which funded the study along with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and several private foundations. The study is published in the Nov. 19, 2007, issue of NeuroReport. Lindsay A. Farrer, Ph.D., of the Boston University School of Medicine, led the research group, with TGen and the Boston University Linux Cluster for Genetic Analysis collaborating.
Sources
Scientists Use Shared Genome Data to Confirm SORL1 Gene Linked to Alzheimer's, Press Release, National Institute of Aging, October 29, 2007
Scientists Find New Genetic Clue to Cause of Alzheimer's Disease, Press Release, National Institute of Aging, January 14, 2007
Published by May Monten
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