Word: risk
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...both happened to present their data at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Vienna in July. Williams, who was in the audience when Amouyel gave his talk, immediately checked her database on her laptop and found to her delight that her group had identified the same high-risk genes as Amouyel's. (Read about advances for Alzheimer's - outside...
...patients' samples, certain versions of the genes that coded for clusterin and PICALM were more likely to be active, compared with the controls; in Amouyel's data set, clusterin and CR1 were the two highest ranking genes. While Amouyel's study had also noted PICALM as a high-risk gene of interest and Williams's research had likewise identified CR1, the two groups used different criteria to pinpoint their highest priority genes, leading to the slightly different rankings. (Both groups also found increased activity of the previously discovered gene, ApoE, in their Alzheimer's samples...
...fact, most healthy people have some version of the three new genes. But their presence alone does not necessarily translate to an elevated risk of Alzheimer's. Each of the genes comes in different forms, or variants, that confer different levels of risk - some variants actually protect against Alzheimer's while others increase the risk. Beyond the effect of specific genes, their interaction with other genes and with an individual's environment may determine how powerfully they contribute to the risk of Alzheimer's. The new research has only identified the relevant genes; the next task for researchers...
...These are common genes, we all have them," Michael Owen, a member of the U.K. team, told reporters at a briefing in London announcing the results. "The key issue is what hand of cards you are dealt, the combination of genes you have that determines your risk...
...nerve cells, much like a spider web ensnares prey. In late-onset Alzheimer's, it's possible that the body cannot balance these two functions of clusterin. "It may be that the difference between a variant of clusterin that protects from Alzheimer's versus one that has a higher risk is the balance between clearing amyloid versus causing it to form more deposits," says Dr. Alison Goate, an author of the U.K. study and a member of the scientific advisory board of the Alzheimer's Association...