{"id":5646,"date":"2024-05-06T15:08:53","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T15:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=5646"},"modified":"2024-05-06T15:33:28","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T15:33:28","slug":"study-suggests-genetics-as-a-cause-not-just-a-risk-for-some-alzheimers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=5646","title":{"rendered":"Study Suggests Genetics as a Cause, Not Just a Risk, for Some Alzheimers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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People with two copies of the gene variant APOE4 are almost certain to get Alzheimer\u2019s, say researchers, who proposed a framework under which such patients could be diagnosed years before symptoms.<\/p>\n

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Scientists are proposing a new way of understanding the genetics of Alzheimer\u2019s that would mean that up to a fifth of patients would be considered to have a genetically caused form of the disease.<\/p>\n

Currently, the vast majority of Alzheimer\u2019s cases do not have a clearly identified cause. The new designation, proposed in a study<\/a> published Monday, could broaden the scope of efforts to develop treatments, including gene therapy, and affect the design of clinical trials.<\/p>\n

It could also mean that hundreds of thousands of people in the United States alone could, if they chose, receive a diagnosis of Alzheimer\u2019s before developing any symptoms of cognitive decline, although there currently are no treatments for people at that stage.<\/p>\n

The new classification would make this type of Alzheimer\u2019s one of the most common genetic disorders in the world, medical experts said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThis reconceptualization that we\u2019re proposing affects not a small minority of people,\u201d said Dr. Juan Fortea, an author of the study and the director of the Sant Pau Memory Unit in Barcelona, Spain. \u201cSometimes we say that we don\u2019t know the cause of Alzheimer\u2019s disease,\u201d but, he said, this would mean that about 15 to 20 percent of cases \u201ccan be tracked back to a cause, and the cause is in the genes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea involves a gene variant called APOE4. Scientists have long known that inheriting one copy of the variant increases the risk of developing Alzheimer\u2019s, and that people with two copies, inherited from each parent, have vastly increased risk.<\/p>\n

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People with two copies of the gene variant APOE4 are almost certain to get Alzheimer\u2019s, say researchers, who proposed a framework under which such patients could be diagnosed years before symptoms.Scientists are proposing a new way of understanding the genetics of Alzheimer\u2019s that would mean that up to a fifth of patients would be considered to have a genetically caused form of the disease.Currently, the vast majority of Alzheimer\u2019s cases do not have a clearly identified cause. The new designation, proposed in a study published Monday, could broaden the scope of efforts to develop treatments, including gene therapy, and affect the design of clinical trials.It could also mean that hundreds of thousands of people in the United States alone could, if they chose, receive a diagnosis of Alzheimer\u2019s before developing any symptoms of cognitive decline, although there currently are no treatments for people at that stage.The new classification would make this type of Alzheimer\u2019s one of the most common genetic disorders in the world, medical experts said.\u201cThis reconceptualization that we\u2019re proposing affects not a small minority of people,\u201d said Dr. Juan Fortea, an author of the study and the director of the Sant Pau Memory Unit in Barcelona, Spain. \u201cSometimes we say that we don\u2019t know the cause of Alzheimer\u2019s disease,\u201d but, he said, this would mean that about 15 to 20 percent of cases \u201ccan be tracked back to a cause, and the cause is in the genes.\u201dThe idea involves a gene variant called APOE4. Scientists have long known that inheriting one copy of the variant increases the risk of developing Alzheimer\u2019s, and that people with two copies, inherited from each parent, have vastly increased risk.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5648,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5646"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5649,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5646\/revisions\/5649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}