One Alzheimer's risk gene may begin to affect brains from childhood

A gene linked to Alzheimer's has been linked to brain changes in childhood. This gene, SORL1, has two connections to Alzheimer’s: it carries the code for the sortilin-like receptor, which is involved in recycling some molecules before they develop into amyloid-beta; it is also involved in lipid metabolism, putting it at the heart of the vascular risk pathway.

Brain imaging of 186 healthy individuals (aged 8-86) found that, even among the youngest, those with a specific variant of SORL1 showed a reduction in white matter connections. Post-mortem brain tissue from 269 individuals (aged 0-92) without Alzheimer's disease, found that the same SORL1 variant was linked to a disruption in the process by which the gene translated its code to become the sortilin-like receptor, and this was most prominent during childhood and adolescence. Another set of post-mortem brains from 710 individuals (aged 66-108), of whom the majority had mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's, found that the SORL1 risk gene was linked with the presence of amyloid-beta.

It may be that, for those carrying this gene variant, lifestyle interventions may be of greatest value early in life.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-12/cfaa-arg120313.php

[3570] Felsky, D., Szeszko P., Yu L., Honer W. G., De Jager P. L., Schneider J. A., et al.
(2013).  The SORL1 gene and convergent neural risk for Alzheimer’s disease across the human lifespan.
Molecular Psychiatry.

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