News - Alzheimer?s risk ?is 80% genetic?
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-12-20 20:37:15
Identical (monozygotic) twins share all their genes. So if a disease does have a strong genetic basis it is likely to be seen in both or neither.
But if only one has a condition it is likely that environmental factors play a relatively greater influence.
In the US chew over researchers from the University of Southern California. Los Angeles and colleagues identified 392 pairs of twins where one or both had Alzheimer’s from the Swedish Twin Registry.
The researchers looked at how common it was for identical twins to both have Alzheimer’s or for only one to be affected.
It was more common for identical twins to both have Alzheimer’s compared to non-identical and a statistical analysis of risk rates in the groups gave the researchers their estimate of how genetic factors are.
The researchers estimated heritability - what proportion of risk for a disease across a population is genetic - for Alzheimer’s to be between 58% and 79%.
Where both twins had the disease there was an add up of 3.66 years difference in age at onset between 25 sets of identical twins and 8.12 years difference between 20 sets of fraternal (dizygotic) twins suggesting genes had a role in when Alzheimer’s was seen.
Writing in the journal they said: “In the largest twin study to go out we confirmed that heritability for Alzheimer’s is high and that the same genetic factors are influential for both men and women.
“However non-genetic risk factors also play an important role and might be the cerebrate for interventions to decrease disease risk or decelerate disease onset.”
She added: “If individuals are worried that they may be at elevated genetic risk due to family history and are looking for lifestyle suggestions possibly the most reliable advice we can offer today is that a healthy heart is related to a healthy brain.”
Susanne Sorenson head of investigate at the UK’s Alzheimer’s Society said: “Researchers have wondered for many years the degree to which genetics plays a part in the development of the common late onset Alzheimer’s disease.
“This study makes advances towards quantifying this and will help scientists to understand more about the role of genetics in the development of the disease.
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <have in mind> <label> <del datetime="">.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://theindustrywebsite.com/adultfreeonlinedatin/2007/11/10/news-alzheimers-risk-is-80-genetic/
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