It may explain why more women have Alzheimer's than men —via healthing_ca
“This is one of a few and perhaps the strongest associations of a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s that is specific to women,” said senior study author Lindsay Farrer.
Scientists have discovered a gene that may raise the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in women, a finding that could shed light on why some people are more likely to develop the progressive disease than others., found that the gene, known as MGMT, was significantly associated with the formation of amyloid-β and tau, particularly in women. The same association to the two proteins, which are considered hallmarks of the disease, was not found in men.
“This is one of a few and perhaps the strongest associations of a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s that is specific to women,”, senior author of the study and chief of biomedical genetics at the Boston University School of Medicine. “This finding is particularly robust because it was discovered independently in two distinct populations using different approaches.”
Researchers have long known that genetic variants can increase the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease, the most notable example being theε4 gene, which is considered a major risk factor for the disease among people 65 years of age or older. Around 60 per cent of people from European ancestry with Alzheimer’s disease carry this gene compared to just 26 per cent of the general population.
Alzheimer’s disease is a chronic condition that is believed to be the result of the accumulation of certain proteins in the brain that leads to the slow death of neurons, . This process eventually produces symptoms of memory loss, difficulty thinking or changes in mood and behaviour. The disease is the most common cause of dementia, accounting for 60 to 80 per cent of all cases, and more than 747,000 Canadians are currently living with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.
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