A new gene has been discovered that increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in women. The findings could explain some of the reasons why women with Alzheimer’s disease are nearly twice as likely as men. Based on the papers of American researchers recently published in “Alzheimer’s Disease & Dementia”, the American health medicine webzine Health Day reported on the 4th (local time).
Researchers from Boston Medical University and the University of Chicago have found that a new gene called MGMT is associated with Alzheimer’s disease in different ways in two groups of genes associated with Alzheimer’s disease. “MGMT is one of the few, and perhaps the strongest, associations with female-specific Alzheimer’s factors,” said Lindsey Farrar, a geneticist at Boston Medical School, who led the study.
One of the two genetic groups is the extended Hutter family, a specific Protestant denomination that originated in central Europe. With isolated cultures and small gene pools, this group is often the subject of data analysis when studying genetic determinants of disease. Among them, the genetic factors of Alzheimer’s disease were traced only to women.
Another gene group was the gene pool of 10,340 women lacking the APOE4 gene. The APOE4 gene is a representative dementia-inducing gene. Therefore, when dementia develops in a group of women lacking this gene, other genetic factors are said to be the determinants.
APOE plays a key role in lipid metabolism, and it was first discovered in 1993 that the ApoE4 variant was associated with the risk of dementia among three variants of ApoE2, ApoE3, and ApoE4. It is known that those who receive the ApoE4 variant from one parent have a three-fold increased risk of dementia, and those who receive the ApoE4 variant from both parents have a 10-fold increased risk. About 60% of European descent and about 26% of the general population carry this variant.
The researchers found that MGMT was significantly associated with Alzheimer’s disease in both data sets. “This is strong evidence because it was found independently in two separate populations with a different approach,” Farrer said. The co-author of the paper, Professor Carol Over (genetics) at the University of Chicago, said, “This is a study that confirmed the importance of a basic population for genetic mapping studies of diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.”
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia and affects more than 5.8 million people in the United States. Further research will be needed to understand why MGMT affects Alzheimer’s risk in women. Because this gene only appears in women, the researchers believe it may be related to female hormones.
The paper can be found at the following link (https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/alz.12719).
By Han Gun-pil, reporter hanguru@kormedi.com
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