The Alzheimer’s It has become one of the most painful diseases for patients who suffer from it and their families. This type of dementia It gradually affects the ability to remember, causing the brain to lose volume and its cells to die.
According to the Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) association, more than 50 million people in the world suffer from this disorder and the figure is expected to triple by 2030. However, Alzheimer’s does not affect everyone in the same way. This disease is usually associated with women, who are almost twice as likely to suffer from it compared to men. In fact, he has a prevalence of 7.1% in women compared to 3.3% in men over 55 years of age.
But why are women more at risk of Alzheimer’s? Here’s what scientists are now saying about a possible gene that could increase risk in women.
Why are more women diagnosed with Alzheimer’s?
There are already new clues about the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in women, according to scientists, which suggest that there could be a gene that increases the risk of suffering from it. They are about the gene, O6-methylguanine-ADN-methyltransferase (MGMT), which works to repair DNA damage in both men and women.
However, there is no link between this gene and Alzheimer’s in men. This is explained by Lindsay Farrer, head of biomedical genetics at the Boston University School of Medicine and co-lead author of the study, published in the scientific journal Alzheimer’s Disease & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association: “It is a specific finding of women, perhaps one of the strongest associations of a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s in women».
The gen APOE ε4 it is also considered an important risk factor for the development of this disorder and also affects more women than men. Added to this are sex-specific risk factors, such as a sudden drop in estrogen. However, until 60% of people with Alzheimer’s do not have it..
This research work, carried out using the technique ‘Genome-wide sequencing‘ (GWAS), found in two genetically differentiated populations of women (without the APOE ε4 gene) that some variants associated with gen MGMT increased the risk of Alzheimer’s.
Thus, the authors revealed, after analyzing the brain tissue of 177 patients, that these variants could be increasing the risk of Alzheimer’s in women. They ensured in this way that the genetic variants associated with the risk of Alzheimer’s affected the degree of DNA methylation and to other epigenetic markers, such as open chromatin, and that these epigenetic changes in turn affect the expression of the MGMT gene in fundamental stages of development.
Despite this, there are still many unknowns to discover. The researchers believe that this new study reveals new parameters to fight Alzheimer’s. In addition, they consider that this knowledge has many implications, such as understanding how risk factors can impact the risk of suffering from diseases.