title: The pursuit of susceptibility genes for Alzheimer's disease: progress and prospects.
abstract: The recent discoveries in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of novel susceptibility loci (CLU, CR1 and PICALM) for Alzheimer's disease (AD) have elicited considerable interest in the AD community. But what are the implications of these purely epidemiological findings for our understanding of disease etiology and patient care? In this review, we attempt to place these findings in the context of current and future AD genetics research. CLU, CR1 and PICALM support existing hypotheses about the amyloid, lipid, chaperone and chronic inflammatory pathways in AD pathogenesis. We discuss how these and future findings can be translated into efforts to ameliorate patient care by genetic profiling for risk prediction and pharmacogenetics and by guiding drug development.
authors.affiliation: Neurodegenerative Brain Diseases Group, VIB-Department of Molecular Genetics; Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Antwerp, Belgium.
authors.forename: Kristel
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sleegers
authors.forename: Jean-Charles
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Lambert
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bertram
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cruts
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Amouyel
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Van Broeckhoven
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D000818:Animals; D018450:Disease Progression; D015195:Drug Design; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors