Scientists studying a family plagued by early-in-life Alzheimer's found some carry a genetic oddity that delays their initial symptoms by five years.The finding points to novel ways of fighting the mind-robbing disease — if researchers can unravel how a single copy of that very rare gene variant offers at least a little protection.'It opens new avenues,' said neuropsychologist Yakeel Quiroz of Massachusetts General Hospital, who helped lead the study published Wednesday.
Eliezer Masliah of the National Institute on Aging.'It gives you a lot of comfort that modifying one of the copies could be really helpful,' at least in helping to delay the disease, he said.Already some very early work is beginning to explore if certain treatments might induce the protective mutation, he added.More than 6 million Americans, and an estimated 55 million people worldwide, have Alzheimer's.