The team of researchers hope to use the findings to develop treatments to treat the disease
A prominent scientific study has identified more than 40 genetic genes linked to Alzheimer’s disease for the first time, in a step that raises hope for a better diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
Scientists from eight countries, including specialists at Cardiff University, were able to study the genetic material of 111,000 Alzheimer’s patients.
The results of the study concluded that the disease affects a person as a result of several factors, in addition to finding evidence of the presence of a specific protein that causes inflammation that helps the disease appear.
Julie Williams, one of the study’s lead team, said the findings were “a huge leap towards progress”.
“Genetics continually helps us identify the mechanisms of a disease that we want to treat,” added Williams, director of the Center for Dementia Research at Cardiff University in the UK.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, affecting more than 850,000 people in the UK.
The team of researchers hopes that in the future, genetic testing will identify people most at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms appear.
The study, published in the journal Nature Genetics, identified 75 genes linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, including 42 genes that scientists have not previously linked to the disease.
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Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia and affects around 850,000 people in the UK
Previous findings related to amyloid-beta and tau proteins, which accumulate in and around neurons as Alzheimer’s disease progresses, have confirmed that inflammation and the immune system play a role in the disease.
The study compared a group of 111,326 people with Alzheimer’s disease and a group of 677,663 healthy people in order to look for differences in people’s genetic makeup.
“This effort represents a huge leap toward making progress in our work to understand Alzheimer’s disease, to produce the treatment needed to delay or prevent the disease,” Williams said.
“The findings support our extensive knowledge that Alzheimer’s disease is a very complex condition, with the many triggers, biological pathways and cell types involved in its development revealing many more,” she added.
“Components of the immune system play a large role in the development of the disease,” she said.
“For example, immune cells in the brain, known as microglia, are responsible for removing damaged tissue, but they may be less efficient in some people in a way that can lead to faster disease,” Williams explains.
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“injury sick because of the genes
“Factors related to a person’s lifestyle, such as smoking, exercise and diet, contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease, and attention to these factors is currently a positive way to reduce the risk ourselves,” says Williams.
She added, “However, 60 to 80 percent of the risk of developing the disease depends on genetic genes, and therefore it is necessary to continue to search for biological causes and develop treatment that is increasingly needed by millions of people with the disease around the world.”
Susan Koolhaas, Director of Research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “It will take a coordinated and global effort to develop a life-changing treatment, but this groundbreaking study gives us hope that scientific research will succeed and allows us to work towards new treatment targets.”
Eight countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, participated in the study led by Jean-Charles Lambert, director of research at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research in collaboration with Williams and colleague Rebecca Sims in the United Kingdom.