New Insight on Link Between Down Syndrome and Alzheimer’s Disease

In a recent study published in the journal Cell, researchers from the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute revealed the process that leads to changes in the brains of individuals with Down syndrome — the same changes that cause dementia in Alzheimer’s disease patients. The findings from the study have important implications for developing treatments that can potentially prevent damage in neuronal connectivity and brain function in Down syndrome and other neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease. By the age of 40, nearly 100 percent of all individuals with Down syndrome develop the changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease, and approximately 25 percent of people with Down syndrome show signs of Alzheimer’s-type dementia by the age of 35, and 75 percent by the age of 65. “Our goal is to understand how the extra copy of chromosome 21 and its genes cause individuals with Down syndrome to have a greatly increased risk of developing dementia,” said the study’s senior author. “Our new study reveals how a protein called sorting nexin (SNX27) regulates the generation of beta-amyloid — the main component of the detrimental amyloid plaques found in the brains of people with Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s. The findings are important because they explain how beta-amyloid levels are managed in these individuals.” To read more about this study, click here.