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New Gene Linked to Alzheimer's
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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 The researchers concluded that SORL1 clearly plays a role in the late-onset Alzheimer's.
While enthusiastic about the finding, Mayeux said it doesn't represent a smoking gun. "Alzheimer's disease is caused by a complex genetic puzzle, and the finding about SORL1 explains a section of the puzzle," he said. "It is not the entire story."
Mayeux and his colleagues stressed that much more work needs to be done.
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Dr. Sam Gandy is chairman of the Alzheimer's Association's Medical and Scientific Advisory Council, and director of the Farber Institute for Neurosciences at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. He agreed that the new finding is just one step down a long and complicated research road, but he said it could be an important step.
"It fits into what we believe is the main mechanism of Alzheimer's already," Gandy said. "This reinforces the idea that we're on the right track with therapies already in the pipeline, while also suggesting a totally new strategy that could be used to target entirely new classes of drugs."
An estimated 4.5 million people in the United States have either early or late-onset Alzheimer's disease, a number that's expected to double during the next 25 years as the population ages.
More information
To learn more about Alzheimer's visit the Alzheimer's Association.
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Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
Last updated 1/15/2007
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SOURCES: Richard Mayeux, M.D., co-director, Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, and professor, neurology, psychiatry and epidemiology, Columbia University, New York City; Sam Gandy, M.D., Ph.D., chairman, medical and scientific advisory council, Alzheimer's Association, and director, Farber Institute for Neurosciences, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia; Jan. 14, 2007, Nature Genetics, online
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