http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2556315473-14a
New gene a factor behind Alzheimer's, expert says
By Y.P.Rajesh
COCHIN, India, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Research has confirmed
suspicions that a new gene could be yet another causative factor
that makes people susceptible to Alzheimer's disease, an expert
said.
``Work that my group has been involved in confirms earlier
suspicions that there is a susceptible gene in chromosome 12
that is a causative factor,'' Dr Lindsay Farrer,
professor-in-chief of the Genetics Programme, Boston University
School of Medicine, told Reuters on Sunday.
Farrer said his research was done in collaboration with Dr
Peter St.George Hyslop at the University of Toronto and had been
published in the Journal of American Medical Associations (JAMA)
in the past month.
``Work on chromosome 12 has been going on for the last year
as part of the intensive effort to look at other candidate genes
that are causative factors for Alzheimer's.''
Farrer was in the south Indian city of Cochin for an
international conference on Alzheimer's.
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, degenerative disorder
of the brain which affects memory, emotion and thought
processes. The disease is usually seen in people over the age of
60, though some in their 40s and 50s have been affected by it.
There is at present very little knowledge about what causes
the fatal disease. Neither is there a cure for Alzheimer's,
which an estimated 18 million people around the world now suffer
from.
Experts at the conference projected that this figure would
touch 30 million by 2020, with about 75 percent of the victims
located in the developing world.
Presently, disorders in four different human genes in
chromosome 1, 14, 19 and 21 are known to be causative factors
for Alzheimer's. Farrer said it was ``not yet known what this
gene in chromosome 12 is, and to what extent the gene will be a
player in the Alzheimer picture.''
``But it is a player and there are probably other genes yet
uncovered.''
He said his group was continuing research after identifying
chromosome 12.
``Right now we are trying to hone in on the gene and narrow
the region. Once we get small enough, we'll begin looking at
candidate genes that we know are definitely located in that
region.''
^REUTERS@
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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