This discovery by researchers from the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and McGill University in Montreal was presented at the International Conference of the Alzheimer’s Association (Copenhagen) and published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
After analyzing 800 brains of Quebecers, Dr. Poirier’s team noticed that the presence of a gene called “HMG CoA reductase” reduced the risk of being affected by Alzheimer’s disease30% for men and 50% for women.
A gene capable of delaying the development of the disease by 5 years
“It’s a gene that we already know very well in cardiovascular disease. It is mainly used to make cholesterol and it is a natural variant that already exists in about 25% of Quebecers,” explains Dr. Poirier. If this gene reduces the risk of being affected by the disease, it would also be able to postpone the development of this pathology by four to five years.
“Five years might not be impressive. But like Alzheimer’s disease is a disease of the elderly, we would be able to eliminate half of the cases of this pathology if we had drugs that made it possible to push it back by 4 to 5 years. And if a treatment could postpone it for 10 years, we calculated that there would be 95% fewer cases of Alzheimer’s in one generation,” he explains.
A drug that already exists
Many cardiology studies have shown that newer statins (lipitor, crestor) have no effect on people with Alzheimer’s disease, while older treatments (zocar, pravacor) are much more effective .
“What is fascinating this time around is that cardiology researchers have been working on this gene, HMG CoA reductase. They made drugs called statins (cholesterol drugs), which are chemical inhibitors of the functioning of this gene. They noticed in those who took these treatments against cholesterol that there was also a protective effect in the case of Alzheimer’s disease “, explains Dr. Poirier.
“As I am optimistic, I think that the drugs therefore already exist. But, of course, we need to conduct further research to establish their effectiveness in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease,” concludes Dr. Poirier.
In France, more than 850,000 people are affected by Alzheimer’s disease and nearly 225,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. The number of patients is expected to reach two million in 2020.
