Tara Spires-Jones
Director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, Group Leader in the UK Dementia Research Institute, and Past President of the British Neuroscience Association
This study by Dr Fortea and colleagues in Barcelona looked at data from over 10,000 individuals and observed that almost everyone in the study who inherited two copies of the APOE4 gene had Alzheimer’s disease as they aged. This is a strong study confirming an important link between APOE4 and Alzheimer’s; however it is not at all a surprise. The increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease with inheriting the APOE4 gene has been known for over 30 years. This study adds compelling data to suggest that people with 2 copies of this gene are almost guaranteed to develop Alzheimer’s if they live long enough and that they will develop Alzheimer’s earlier than people without this gene. Moving forward, this study and others highlight the importance of more fundamental research into understanding how genes change the susceptibility of our brains to Alzheimer’s disease as we age.