A new study has identified 17 genetic variants that may influence Alzheimer's disease risk, putting researchers one step closer to uncovering biological pathways to target for future treatment and prevention.
"Prior genome-wide association studies using common variants have identified regions of the genome, and sometimes genes, that are associated with Alzheimer's disease," says study co-senior author Dr. Anita DeStefano, professor of biostatistics at BUSPH."Whole genome sequence data interrogates every base pair in the human genome and can provide more information about which specific genetic change in a region may be contributing to Alzheimer's disease risk or protection.
"Including participants that represent diverse genetic ancestry and diverse environments in terms of social determinants of health is important to understanding the full spectrum of Alzheimer's disease risk, as both the prevalence of the disease and the frequencies of genetic variants can differ among populations," says Dr. DeStefano.