New Gene Linked to Alzheimer's

It could contribute to late-onset disease, the most common form of the condition

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

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SUNDAY, Jan. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists have discovered a major new gene and linked it to the development of late-onset Alzheimer's disease.

The researchers found that faulty versions of the gene --known as SORL1 -- are more common among those with the disease than among healthy people of a similar age. The finding is significant, the researchers said, because the study included more than 6,000 people from a wide range of racial and ethnic groups -- white Europeans, blacks, Caribbean-Hispanics and Israeli-Arabs.

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Abnormal SORL1 genes seem to set in motion a neurological chain of events that promotes the production of amyloid plaque in the brain -- a development integral to the onset of Alzheimer's.

People with these gene variants also appear to have fewer normal SORL1 genes overall, a dip that the researchers believe could also raise the risk for developing late-onset Alzheimer's.

But, the researchers added that not all people with the faulty SORL1 gene will develop Alzheimer's.

"There are multiple genes and maybe some environmental factors [involved], and it may be that some people carry a risk gene but don't get the disease," explained study co-author Dr. Richard Mayeux, co-director of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain in New York City.

"So, until we map out all of (the) genes involved we're not going to understand exactly how to calculate risk for this disease," he said.

The findings are published in the Jan. 14 online issue of Nature Genetics.

Mayeux made his remarks during a news conference prior to the study's release. He was joined by his co-lead collaborators: Dr. Peter St. George-Hyslop, director of the University of Toronto's Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases; Lindsay Farrer, chief of Boston University's Genetics Program; and Dr. Steven Younkin, chairman of the department of pharmacology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, in Jacksonville, Fla.

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