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New Gene May Predict Onset of Alzheimer's

By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 12, 2009 7:30 PM CDT
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(Newser) – A newly unveiled gene linked to Alzheimer's disease could help determine when symptoms of the brain disorder will arise, the News & Observer reports. A team of Duke University scientists announced their finding today at a Vienna conference. “As soon as people start forgetting things, they want to know if they will get Alzheimer’s disease,” Allen Roses, who led the team, tells Bloomberg. “That is what we are getting at."

Roses calls the discovery "a bigger deal" than his earlier discovery of the APOE gene, which accounts for 30%-50% of late-onset Alzheimer's. The new genetic variant, Tomm40, could help diagnose 85% of inherited Alzheimer's and identify when it will start, Roses says. "While this doesn’t say everyone will get Alzheimer’s disease at these ages, it is meaningful."

Scientists at Duke University today unveiled a new gene that could help identify when Alzheimers' symptoms will set in.
Scientists at Duke University today unveiled a new gene that could help identify when Alzheimers' symptoms will set in.   (Shutterstock)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 5 comments
brawne
Jul 13, 2009 12:57 PM CDT
Yeah. Something I want to know before my brain calcifies and I get it. Talk about a big lobby. If AARP put more money in their grandchildren it would be nice. What difference that your brain is unflolding? Not a problem for you--a problem for the people caring for and loving you. Course if you have two parents or grandparents from both trees who develop this--you might what to live life at the fullest. Me? My great-grandmother was still mean as a snake at 112. Same with the other tree limb. Be grateful they had no internet. When I was eight, I asked that great-grandmother if there were angels. Her exact words were "Oh, yeah and they give a total shit about you." There are worse things then Alzheimer's.
Mad
Jul 13, 2009 8:00 AM CDT
Cannabis may stave off Alzheimer's http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15... Just sayin'
luluzz
Jul 13, 2009 7:04 AM CDT
I'm at that age where my mind skips a beat often. When it first started happening it really scared me and I asked my doctor about Alzheimer's. He said no, if you think you have it then you don't. But deebles it is terrifying when you lose your mind. Perhaps in the later phases of the disease it isn't so bad for the patient because they really don't know what's happening, but it is so hard on the family. Especially if the patient was really bright and intelligent.
US • Health

 
Duke University • genetic research • Alzheimer's Disease • symptoms

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