Genetic evidence for the involvement of lipid metabolism in Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly and presents a great burden to sufferers and to society. The genetics of rare Mendelian forms of AD have been central to our understanding of AD pathogenesis for the past twenty years and now the genetics of the common form of the disease in the elderly is beginning to be unravelled by genome-wide association studies. Four new genes for common AD have been revealed in the past year, CLU, CR1, PICALM and BIN1. Their possible involvement in lipid metabolism and how that relates to AD is discussed here.
Jones
Lesley
L
MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, School of Medicine, Heath Park, Cardiff University, CF14 4XN, UK. jonesl1@cf.ac.uk
Harold
Denise
D
Williams
Julie
J
D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing / Q000235:genetics; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000235:genetics; D051152:Clusterin / Q000235:genetics; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005828:Genetics, Population; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D050356:Lipid Metabolism / Q000235:genetics*; D034041:Monomeric Clathrin Assembly Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics
D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing; D001057:Apolipoproteins E; C101410:BIN1 protein, human; C495242:CLU protein, human; D051152:Clusterin; D034041:Monomeric Clathrin Assembly Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; C439003:PICALM protein, human; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins