Scientists have identified a network of genes that play a key role in the onset of Alzheimer's disease, in a discovery that could unlock potential new treatments for the condition.
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In a study of a family of 5000 people in Colombia, scientists were able to identify genes that delayed the disease and others that accelerated it and by how much, according to the research published in Molecular Psychiatry.
Lead researcher Associate Professor Mauricio Arcos-Burgos from the Australian National University said the large, close-knit family, who live in a region in the western mountains of Colombia, were affected by a type of hereditary Alzheimer's.
Associate Professor Arcos-Burgos and his team were able to discount environmental factors and trace the family's genetic predisposition to Alzheimer's disease back to a founder mutation in one individual who came to the region about five centuries ago.
"This is the largest family in the world with a unique, exotic form of Alzheimer's disease. they have a unique mutation. It's a mutation that once you've got it from your father or mother, you develop Alzheimer's," he said.
"Some of them had dementia when they were 50 but some of them suffered from dementia when they were 60 so our question was, 'what is going on?'"
Associate Professor Arcos-Burgos and his team found a set of nine genes involved in Alzheimer's, some of which delayed the onset by up to 17 years, while others advanced its progress.
"We think studying these genes, we can [make] a real important contribution to the science of Alzheimer's because we think the therapeutics must focus on these genes that change the timing and gives you the opportunity to decelerate this process of dementia," he said.
He said if it was possible to determine how to decelerate the disease, it could have a profound impact.
"I think it's a very important discovery because [we found] the effect that these genes have on dementia is huge," he said.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting up to 70 per cent of all people with dementia, according to Alzheimer's Australia.
Associate Professor Arcos-Burgos said even if the onset of Alzheimer's could be delayed by one year, that would mean 9 million fewer people would have it in 2050.
"This could change the future, it might mean that we can get help with the molecules we are trying to discover and these markers or biomarkers that we have discovered that can predict how fast you're going to develop Alzheimer's," he said.
Associate Professor Arcos-Burgos will now embark on research studying the genes of a group of Queanbeyan people who have been followed for the past decade.
