the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) may depend on which side of the family has a history of the illness. The researchers examined 4,400 adults without cognitive impairment and used amyloid imaging to identify increased amyloid levels in individuals who reported their mothers having symptoms of AD. They also found higher amyloid levels in those with a family history of the disease on both sides or whose fathers experienced early onset of symptoms. This indicates that the risk of accumulating amyloid in the brain may be influenced by a person’s maternal or paternal family history. The study provides new insights into the role of genetic inheritance in AD risk.
A new study by investigators from Mass General Brigham suggests that whether a person inheritsThere is a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease if it runs in the family, with the risk being influenced by the mother or father. A study of 4,400 adults aged 65-85 found that those with a family history of Alzheimer’s disease had increased amyloid levels in their brains. The study’s results were published in JAMA Neurology. Senior author Hyun-Sik Yang, MD, noted that participants with a family history on their mother’s side had higher amyloid levels.Dr. Yang, an oral neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a physician investigator at the Mass General Research Institute, worked with researchers from Mass General Brigham, Vanderbilt, and Stanford University. Previous studies have looked at how family history may impact Alzheimer’s disease, with some suggesting that having a maternal history may increase the risk. The group wanted to take a closer look at this question using a larger group of participants who were cognitively normal.
The team analyzed the family history of elderly individuals who participated in the Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s (A4) study, which is a randomized clinical trial that aims to prevent AD. The participants were questioned about when their parents first experienced symptoms of memory loss. The researchers also inquired whether their parents had received a formal diagnosis or if Alzheimer’s disease had been confirmed through autopsy.
“Some individuals choose not to seek a formal diagnosis and attribute memory loss to aging, so we focused on a memory loss and dementia phenotype,” Yang explained.
The researchers then compared the responses and assessed the presence of amyloid in the participants’ brain scans.Ants. They discovered that a family history of memory loss in mothers of all ages and in fathers with early-onset memory loss was linked to higher amyloid levels in the participants who showed no symptoms. The researchers noted that having a family history of late-onset memory loss in fathers was not linked to higher amyloid levels. “If your father experienced symptoms early on, this is connected to increased levels in the offspring,” explained Mabel Seto, PhD, the lead author and a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Neurology at the Brigham. “However, it doesn’t matter when your mother began experiencing symptoms — if she did.”
It’s associated with elevated amyloid,” said Seto, who works on sex differences in neurology. The study’s results are fascinating because Alzheimer’s is more prevalent in women. “It’s really interesting from a genetic perspective to see one sex contributing something the other sex isn’t,” Seto said. The findings were not affected by whether study participants were biologically male or female. Yang noted a limitation of the study is that some participants’ parents died young, before they could potentially develop cognitive symptoms.
impairment. According to Seto, social factors such as access to resources and education may have also influenced when cognitive impairment was recognized and whether a formal diagnosis was made.
“It’s worth noting that the majority of participants in the study are non-Hispanic white,” Seto noted. “We may not observe the same impact in other racial and ethnic groups.”
Seto indicated that the next steps involve expanding the study to include other demographic groups and investigating the impact of parental history on cognitive decline and amyloid accumulation over time, as well as the role of maternal DNA.
Co-author Reisa Sperling, MD, is the principal investigator on the paper and will be involved in the next steps of the study.The investigator of the A4 Study and a neurologist at Mass General Brigham, stated that the results could soon be utilized in clinical practice. “This research suggests that the passing down of Alzheimer’s disease from mother to child may play a significant role in identifying symptomless individuals for current and future prevention trials,” Sperling noted.