Rare Gene Variant Doubles Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease

Newly-identified variations of a gene that doubles a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease later in life have been discovered by a team of researchers at Washington University School of Medicine. Over the past 20 years, scientists have found a number of common genetic variants linked to early-onset (before the age of 65) and the more common late-onset forms of Alzheimer’s disease; however, those variants only account for a fraction of Alzheimer’s cases. The newly-identified variations occur rarely in the population — making them difficult for researchers to identify — but they’re significant because individuals who carry these variants are at a substantially higher risk of developing the disease.  To read more about the results of this research, click here.