40 genetic variants are now associated with the Alzheimer’s disease: 5 new variants have indeed just been discovered within the framework of the IGAP project (Genomics of Alzheimer’s Project) co-managed by the team of researchers from the Institut Pasteur de Lille. For this study, the genomes of 35,000 people with Alzheimer’s disease were compared to those of 59,000 people without the disease. The objective was to search for variants, i.e. distinct DNA sequences between these two groups and statistically associated with the occurrence of the disease.
A fundamental discovery for future treatments
This work published in the journal Nature Genetics therefore highlighted 5 new variants associated with Alzheimer’s disease, including a rare one that was found in less than 1% of patients. Some of these new variants are concentrated in regions involved in metabolism Tau protein and the amyloid peptide precursor protein, whose contribution to the disease is already known, particularly in the family forms of Alzheimer’s disease.
“But we also find variants in regions involving immunity and this is very interesting because it could validate a current line of research” explains Jean-Charles Lambert, researcher at Inserm and main author of the study.
Given the repeated failures of therapeutic trials in the field of Alzheimer’s disease, better understanding the variants associated with the disease and the pathophysiological mechanisms that they control is essential for developing new therapeutic strategies. A new European project, including even more patients, is already being studied with this same team of researchers.
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