The Brain Game: What Researchers Have Discovered About Genes in Dementia

 Alzheimer's Disease  

Your genetic makeup plays a role in your risk for developing dementia an Alzheimer's disease.  New research is helping pinpoint these factors and build a better understanding of neurodegenerative conditions.

While scientists are still not sure exactly what causes Alzheimer's disease, and other forms of dementia, they do know that those with a family history of dementia are at higher risk. Read on to learn more about how your genetic makeup plays a role in your risk for developing dementia, and the research currently being conducted about this key connection.

According to the Alzheimer's Association, people who have a brother, sister, mother, father, or child with dementia are more likely to develop it themselves. If more than one family member has dementia, your risk rises even higher. While this connection is sometimes due to environmental factors, genetics most often plays a role in family history.

In general, two types of genes come into play while determining your likelihood of developing a specific disease: risk genes and deterministic genes. While having the risk genes increases the likelihood that you'll develop a specific disease, not everyone with risk genes for a disease will develop that disease. Deterministic genes, on the other hand, directly cause a disease. There are both risk genes and deterministic genes that lead to Alzheimer's and dementia.

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Deterministic genes, however, are very rare. For most people who develop dementia, a combination of various genetic factors as well as lifestyle influences are at play. At this time, there is no clear way to predict who will develop dementia based solely on genetics. The exception being Alzheimer's disease; those who have the genes amyloid precursor protein (APP), and two presenilin genes (PSEN-1 and PSEN-2) will develop early onset Alzheimer's. People with the genes apolipoprotein E (APOE) tend to develop Alzheimer's after age 65. It's important to remember that all of these genes, however, are extremely rare, accounting for less than one in 1,000 Alzheimer's cases in the population at large.

Because of the rarity of these genes, genetic testing for Alzheimer's is generally not recommended except for those who have several family members who have developed the disease between the ages of 30 and 50. According to ComforCare National, a home care service, volunteers for this kind of research and testing are coming more and more from families of the afflicted.

Research about the connection between genetics and Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia is ongoing. The Alzheimer's Association and the National Institute on Aging jointly spearhead the National Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Study, which studies the blood of those who have developed dementia in hopes of identifying additional genes that may contribute to the disease. Two international initiatives, the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN), funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the Alzheimer's Prevention Initiative (API) are also looking into genetic factors.

While research is ongoing, we are beginning to see that perhaps dementia and other disease are born conditions rather than completely due to outside factors.

Hopefully with the support and funding put into these programs more answers will emerge.

By Brooke Chaplan

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Author Bio - Brooke Chaplan is a freelance writer and recent graduate of New Mexico University where she studied journalism. She loves to hike, bike, run and explore around her home in Los Lunas, New Mexico. She also enjoys blogging about health, fitness, fashion and many other topics.