Beware of Alzheimer's from a young age
Alzheimer's disease genes start working in childhood
In the journal Molecular Psychiatry, Aristotle Voineskos and his colleagues describe how they monitored the behavior of the SORL1 gene during a person's lifetime (Felsky et al., The SORL1 gene and convergent neural risk for Alzheimer's disease across the human lifespan). This gene encoding a receptor protein is considered one of the main genetic causes of Alzheimer's disease: it is responsible for the utilization of certain molecules and the metabolism of lipids that are most directly related to this disease.
First, scientists found out which variants of the SORL1 gene occur in healthy people, and which – in patients with Alzheimer's syndrome. Then they compared these options with the brain state, which was assessed using diffusion MRI. The study involved people of all ages, from 8-year-olds to 86-year-olds, and, according to the authors of the work, even the youngest subjects had "bad" SORL1 variants in the genome accompanied by a decrease in the proportion of white matter, which serves as pathways between brain centers.
It is clear that the children did not have the syndrome, but the changes in the brain accompanying the SORL1 variants associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease indicated that everything was no longer smooth with their brains.
In addition, brain tissue samples obtained from 189 deceased who did not suffer from Alzheimer's syndrome were analyzed; these included infants and 90-year-olds. Once again, scientists were interested in the relationship between the state of the brain and variants of the SORL1 gene. Finally, the third batch of data related to brain samples taken after death from more than 700 patients with Alzheimer's disease aged 66 to 108 years (most of the disease was relatively mild). So it was possible to establish a correlation between poor variants of SORL1 and the accumulation of beta-amyloid, one of the main "Alzheimer's proteins".
The conclusions, as already mentioned, are disappointing: the presence of some SORL1 alleles correlated with the intensity of the symptoms of the disease, and these alleles began to manifest themselves at an early age. However, the authors themselves warn against oversimplifying the resulting picture: the presence of the "bad" SORL1 gene does not mean that a person will inevitably slide into Alzheimer's disease. Neurodegenerative diseases depend on many factors, including lifestyle, bad habits, diet, and so on, and the presence of an appropriate gene variant only means that you need to be more careful in these matters and, perhaps, help your brain with some supportive means.
In addition, we should not forget that more and more molecular genetic factors are being detected in Alzheimer's disease. And in the near future, the authors of the work, for example, are going to check how the development of the disease is affected by the interaction of SORL1 with the neurotrophic factor of the brain, which is also believed to play an important role in this disease.
Prepared based on the materials of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health:
Alzheimer’s risk gene may begin to affect brains as early as childhood, CAMH research shows.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru05.12.2013