Breakthrough in battle against Alzheimer’s

Washington, April 10: In a first, scientists have identified and successfully erased the effects of a key gene that significantly increases the risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

Having one copy of the apoE4 gene more than doubles a person’s likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease, and having two copies of the gene increases the risk by 12- fold, as compared to the most common version of the gene, apoE3.

The apoE4 gene creates a protein of the same name. The apoE4 protein differs from the apoE3 protein at only one point, but that single change is enough to alter its main structure and, thus, its function, researchers said.

Researchers from the Gladstone Institutes in the US were also able to erase the damage caused by apoE4 by changing it, with a small molecule, into a harmless apoE3like version.

Most Alzheimer’s research and drug development are done in mouse models of the disease. However, a succession of clinical trial failures has spurred scientists to turn to other models.

Instead, researchers decided to use human cells to model the disease and test new drugs. They were able to examine, for the first time, the effect of apoE4 on human brain cells.

To do so, they created neurons from skin cells donated by Alzheimer’s patients with two copies of the apoE4 gene, as well as from healthy individuals who had two copies of the apoE3 gene.

The researchers confirmed that, in human neurons, the misshapen apoE4 protein cannot function properly and is broken down into diseasecausing fragments in the cells.