L’Can Alzheimer’s be inherited? And if yes, Who is most at risk among those who have cases of illness in the family? A group of scientists from Mass General Brigham (USA) tried to answer these questions, confirming that family history matters for Alzheimer’s and discovering that the chances of developing the most common form of dementia change based on which parent suffered from it. : The danger, in particular, is greatest for people whose mothers – no matter when in life – showed symptoms of Alzheimer’s. The risk of getting ill was found to be higher even if these symptoms are present in the family on the part of both mother and father, or if the father developed them, but early. The study is published in ‘Jama Neurology’.
The research: maternal and paternal family history and impact
The authors examined the family history (relatives with Alzheimer’s symptoms, even without a real diagnosis) of 4,400 men and women aged between 65 and 85, without cognitive problems, involved in a clinical trial for the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s (Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s or A4). Through imaging they evaluated brain levels of amyloid protein, a biomarker of Alzheimer’s disease, observing that “a person’s maternal family history, compared to the paternal one, could have a different impact on the risk of accumulating amyloid in the brain”. Some research had already suggested this previously, but on much smaller numbers.
From the new work on the A4 study sample it emerges that, “if participants had a family history of ‘Alzheimer’ on their mother’s side, a higher amyloid level was observed”, reports neurologist Hyun-Sik Yang, corresponding author of the study for which he collaborated with other colleagues at Mass General Brigham and with scientists from Vanderbilt University and Stanford. “It doesn’t matter at what age the mother began to develop symptoms,” explains neurologist Mabel Seto, first author: regardless of when the mother’s cognitive problems began, they were associated with higher levels of amyloid in her children. The father’s legacy, on the contrary, only weighed on the offspring when the symptoms began early: “Having only a paternal history of late-onset memory disorders was not associated with higher amyloid levels,” the authors clarify.
Even considering Alzheimer’s it tends to be more common in women“from a genetic point of view it is really interesting to see how one sex contributes to a risk that the other does not”, highlights Seto.
The limits of the research
The scientists cite some limitations of the work. For example, the fact that some participants’ parents died young, before they could possibly develop cognitive disorders. Or that the majority of people evaluated were non-Hispanic white, so the study’s findings may not apply to other ethnicities. Furthermore, social factors could make the difference in recognizing the warning symptoms of Alzheimer’s or not. New research will therefore be conducted, also to understand how family history concretely influences cognitive decline and the cerebral accumulation of amyloid protein over time, and why maternal DNA plays a role in Alzheimer’s risk.
What can the study be used for?
For neurologist Reisa Sperling, co-author of the article and principal investigator of the A4 study, the new data could soon translate into innovations in clinical practice. “This work – she states – indicates that maternal inheritance of Alzheimer’s disease may be an important factor in identifying asymptomatic people to be involved in current and future prevention studies”.
#Hereditary #Alzheimers #risk #answers #study