Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive disorder which usually causes the brain cells to degenerate and then to die. Alzheimer’s disease has a high association with inheritance patterns and genetic risk factors. The first-degree of relatives of individuals that have been affected with Alzheimer’s disease have the highest risk. Alzheimer’s disease is a polygenic disorder as the risks for the disease are associated with different genes. The genetic risk factor is associated with chromosome 21 which usually carries the gene for amyloid precursor protein which is the precursor for β-amyloid (Julia & Goate, 2017). Another significant genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease is Apolipoprotein E (APOE). APOE is known as the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. ApoE is located in chromosome 19 and it has three common alleles, E2, E3, and E4 with the E4 being the highest risk factor allele (Belloy et al., 2019).
The pathology of Alzheimer’s disease involves a diffusion of cerebral atrophy which is associated with with β-amyloid, neurofibrillary tangles, and neuritic plagues. Amyloid β neuritic plaques can have abnormal aggregates as a result of senile plaques (Perneczky, 2018). Neurofibrillary tangles involve abnormal fibers in a modified form occurring in neural protein. A higher density of these lesions in the brain along with the history of dementia would be used to confirm the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
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The greatest known risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease is increasing age. The risk usually increases significantly after turning 65 years and older. Family history where one has close relatives with Alzheimer’s disease increases the likelihood for the illness. Cardiovascular and lifestyle-related risk factors are also associated as risk factors for the disease. Broce et al. (2019) observe that cardiovascular associated risk factors such as body mass index, type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and high-density lipoprotein as the high risk factor.
References
Belloy, M. E., Napolioni, V., & Greicius, M. D. (2019). A quarter century of APOE and Alzheimer’s disease: progress to date and the path forward. Neuron , 101 (5), 820-838.
Broce, I. J., Tan, C. H., Fan, C. C., Jansen, I., Savage, J. E., Witoelar, A., ... & Glymour, M. (2019). Dissecting the genetic relationship between cardiovascular risk factors and Alzheimer’s disease. Acta neuropathologica , 137 (2), 209-226.
Julia, T. C. W., & Goate, A. M. (2017). Genetics of β-amyloid precursor protein in Alzheimer's Disease. Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine , 7 (6), a024539.
Perneczky, R. (Ed.). (2018). Biomarkers for preclinical Alzheimer's disease . Humana Press.
