New Alzheimer's gene link
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A TEAM of British researchers is one of three groups to have identified the site of a second gene mutation that causes the rare inherited form of the incurable brain disorder Alzheimer's disease.
The mutations affect the control of instructions for the body's output of a protein, amyloid, which causes dementia when deposited in the brain.
Dr Martin Rossor, head of the Department of Neurology at St Mary's hospital in west London, said today: 'This new finding will be of exceptional importance, because it will allow us to study patients with the disease accurately and to attempt to understand why the protein deposit causes the loss of memory and other distressing features of the illness. In some cases we may be able to predict whether someone is developing Alzheimer's at an early stage and to try new methods to prevent dementia.'
Scientists and doctors at St Mary's dementia team said the finding comes two years after the hospital showed that the first gene error was located on chromosome 21. This was the first indication of the true underlying cause of Alzheimer's. The second error, on chromosome 14, seems to occur in most of the remaining families with histories of Alzheimer's not accounted for by the mutation on the other gene site.
The other two groups reporting the finding are from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and the University of Toronto, Canada. The St Mary's research and two other papers on the subject appear in this month's issue of the US magazine Nature Genetics.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments