JACKSONVILLE, Fla., March 22 (UPI) -- Mayo Clinic researchers say they've discovered a gene that appears to either help protect against Alzheimer's disease, or promotes the disorder.
The researchers at the Mayo Clinic's Jacksonville, Fla., campus said the difference in the genetic behavior depends on the level of the gene in the brain.
In two research studies published nearly simultaneously in the journals Neurology and PLoS ONE, the scientists found strong evidence for the role of the gene -- insulin-degrading enzyme -- in influencing the risk of Alzheimer's disease. The researchers were one of the groups that first found an association between the gene and Alzheimer's several years ago, but their new findings, they said, offer a novel theory about how the gene could be involved in the disease process.
"We found a new mechanism of action for this Alzheimer's disease susceptibility gene, that acts by altering gene expression levels," said Dr. Nilufer Ertekin-Taner, the lead investigator on the Neurology study and contributor to the PLoS ONE research.
Fanggeng Zou and Minerva Carrasquillo are the joint first authors of the Neurology study. Carrasquillo and Zou, Olivia Belbin, and doctoral candidate Mariet Allen are the joint first authors of the PLoS ONE study.
The studies were funded by The National Institutes of Health, the Mayo Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and the Robert and Clarice Smith and Abigail Van Buren Alzheimer's Disease Research Program.
