New Gene Discovery Predicted To Yield Life-Changing Alzheimer’s Treatment

A group of scientists from Cardiff University has made a groundbreaking discovery in Alzheimer’s research that could lead to life-changing treatments for sufferers of the most common form of the disease in the next 15 years. Their research began in 2009, and in 2022, they announced they had found three genes that led to the disease. Now, they have discovered an additional 92 genes that could lead to effective treatment options.

“By 2040, I think we’ll be in the position to offer a range of treatments, and we might not know exactly why, but one of them will be able to act on the huge range of causes,” said Professor Julie Williams, the Cardiff Dementia Centre’s director.

Professor Williams acknowledged that various therapies would be needed to combat the constellation of problems the disease presents. “Once you know where to start looking, then you can study the effects which genes have on specific brain activity,” she said.

According to Professor Williams, defective genes change the way microglia immune cells work, which are the bin lorries of the brain clearing away what they see as rubbish. When microglia are less efficient at clearing genuine rubbish, they mistakenly kill off healthy brain cells, including synapses. The loss of synapses leads to the loss of connections, thought, and memories.

Last year, Professor Tara Spires-Jones of the University of Edinburgh predicted that a drug might be available within a decade that would limit the suffering of Alzheimer’s patients to initial mild confusion. She added, “I know all these decades of research can seem disheartening, but game-changing, miracle drugs have been found for other brain diseases, and one is coming for this one.”

A computer program announced last July could enable researchers to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease much earlier, so it can be treated earlier after its onset. Using audio recordings from neuropsychological interviews with 1,000 people, Boston University researchers used speech recognition tools to transcribe the recordings and translate them into numbers. Then the chances of cognitive impairment were determined by those numbers, demographic data, and diagnoses from neurologists and neuropsychologists.

“This approach brings us one step closer to early intervention,” said Ioannis Paschalidis, a co-author on the paper. “It can form the basis of an online tool that could reach everyone and could increase the number of people who get screened early.”