Alzheimer's can be treated with gene replacement therapy

(Alzheimer's disease) - Alzheimer's disease is treated by eliminating fault genes, researchers predict after discovering 11 key genes that increase the risk.

Alzheimer's disease can be treated, or even prevented, by eliminating faulty genes, an expert with Alzheimer's disease predicted.

Men and women may receive a group of healthy genes that replace damaged genes that cause alzheimer's disease.

Professor Julie Williams, of Cardiff University, said the entire population could be tested during the middle-aged period to determine who is at greatest risk.

Scientists can then use cutting - edge gene therapy and other treatments to prevent the permanent development of the disease.

Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia affect more than 800,000 Britons, with the number expected to double when the population ages.

Existing drugs delay the progression of Alzheimer's disease, but their failure to block the underlying causes of the brain means that the effects of these drugs go away quickly and soon The devastating process of the disease to the patient's memory.

Professor Julie Williams made the prediction after leading the largest study ever done about the heredity of the disease.

This landmark study involved more than 180 researchers from 15 countries around the world, indicating 11 genes that increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

The collaborative scale allowed them to identify more genes in less than three years compared to the number discovered in the previous two decades.

By studying a total of 21 genes, this amount is about twice as much as the number of genes that cause Alzheimer's disease was discovered, Nature Genetics reported.

Organizations on alzheimer's said that interesting discoveries about genes linked to the disease will pave the way for new ways of exploring research to treat the disease.

These new genes were discovered by comparing the DNA of more than 25,000 people with Alzheimer's disease with 48,000 people without the disease.

Professor Williams, who is Welsh Assembly's chief scientific adviser and researcher, said: 'What surprised us the most was that most of the findings were a healthy model given. Some genes imply that the body's immune system is causing dementia. "

'Each individual gene will bring a low risk to each other but when you put all the information together, they will reveal to us a strange and interesting story and that brings us. into a new direction ".

She added that the findings should be monitored with 'real urgency' to determine how genes cause memory loss. Knowing this will help speed up research for new drug treatments.

There is another possibility, however, that correcting the damaged DNA, or gene variants that cause alzheimer's disease, by giving the patient a healthy package of genes.

Professor Williams said: 'I thought this for 10 years that we could search for in a genetic therapy. That may come true but almost nothing. "

'If you have a variant that you know is affecting a disease, the most effective way to reduce the risk is to replace it at the right time. Gene therapy will allow you to change the factors that affect this disease. Medicines may not be right and may cause side effects'.

She added that 'in the future ' people in their 40s or 50s need to check for genes that cause dementia and use gene therapy and other treatments to prevent Alzheimer's disease. permanent development.

The study also found a link between Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.

Professor Hugh Perry of the Medical Research Council, which partially supported the study, conducted a study on Alzheimer's in the UK, saying: ' Understanding our genetic code affects Alzheimer's disease, the Dementia and other neurological diseases are an important part of the problem of studying how we can prevent the devastating effects of disease '.