A team of researchers from the University of California at Los Angeles has discovered a gene that increases the risk of Alzheimer’s and starts to do its damage well before the first symptoms of the disease present themselves, according to a statement from UCLA.
Published in the online Journal of Neuroscience, the study expanded on earlier research which identified specific genes that increase the risk of Alzheimer’s.
The researchers scanned the brains of 398 healthy adults ranging in age from 20 to 30 using a high-magnetic-field diffusion scan, and found that those who were CLU-C gene carriers showed a distinct profile of lower white matter integrity that may increase vulnerability to developing the disease later in life.
Lead author Paul Thompson, professor of neurology at UCLA said there were surprising discoveries about this gene’s function, in that the risk gene damages your brain a full 50 years before people normally get Alzheimer’s. The damage can be seen on an MRI scan, but there are no symptoms yet.
The gene, which 88 percent of Caucasians have, makes your brain wiring vulnerable to attack by impairing the wiring before any senile plaques or tangles develop.
The mapping of structural brain differences in those at genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease is crucial for evaluating treatment and prevention strategies, Thompson said. Once identified, brain differences can be monitored to determine how lifestyle choices influence brain health and disease risk.