Inside Precision Medicine June 20, 2024
Carrying just one copy of a genetic variant has conferred some protection against dementia for a family at high risk of inheriting early Alzheimer’s disease, according to research that could flag new therapeutic targets for dementia.
The findings come from a South-American family of more than a thousand people who are genetically predisposed to develop Alzheimer’s disease in their 40s.
The study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that possessing the apolipoprotein APOE3 “Christchurch variant” (APOE3Ch) delayed cognitive impairment by approximately five years.
The results follow on from an earlier study in which a female family member with two copies of this rare variant only developed mild cognitive impairment in her 70s, almost three decades after it would...