A research team led by Chunshui Yu and Mulin Jun Li of Tianjin Medical University has discovered two new genes that may be involved in Alzheimer’s disease. They identified them by examining which genes were turned on and off in the hippocampus of infected people. The team ‘s new results are announced February 25 in Genetics PLOS.
Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that involves worsening depression and the formation of protein plaques and tangles in the brain. One of the first areas of damage is the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in memory. To better understand which genes contribute to the progression of this hereditary disease, the researchers compared genes expressed at higher or lower levels in the hippocampus of people with Alzheimer’s disease in comparison to healthy brains. They identified 24 Alzheimer-related genes that appear to be affected through the hippocampus, using genomic and pre-hippocampus gene expression data. Many genes, such as APOE, were already known to contribute to the disease, but two were unknown, PTPN9 and PCDHA4. In addition, several are involved in the biological process associated with Alzheimer’s disease, such as plaque formation and cell death.
The research team further validated their findings by comparing gene expression for the two dozen genes with images of individuals ’brains. In Alzheimer’s disease, damage and loss of neurons causes the hippocampus to shrink, which can be measured through medical imaging. The researchers established that expression of two of the genes is related to the size of the hippocampus and the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
Overall, the new findings improve our understanding of the genetic and cellular mechanisms that cause Alzheimer’s disease. The next step is to study the roles of the two modern genes and how they contribute to this devastating disease.
The authors add, “The study identifies two new genes associated with Alzheimer’s disease in the context of hippocampal tension and reveals a candidate’s neurobiologic pathways with hippocampus medium from gene expression to Alzheimer’s disease . “
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