Study reveals genetic risk of dementia in people of African descent

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Has been updated: Dec 22, 2022 23:43 teeth

angels [US]December 22 (ANI): Researchers in the largest-ever genomic study of dementia in people of African descent have found many genetic risks that differ from those seen in people of European descent.
Scientists have found many cases where genetic mutations can increase risk. Alzheimer’s disease Improve disease and related dementias using data from the VA Million Veterans Program (MVP).
“MVP is a great resource for studying the genetics of many diseases, including dementia,” said study author Mark Roeg, PhD, a statistician at the VA Boston Health Care System and the National Center for PTSD. “This is one of the first Alzheimer’s disease Disease-related research generated from MVP. My colleagues and I are working hard to expand MVP’s dementia efforts and collaborate with other large organizations. Alzheimer’s disease Disease research institute.
In the United States, more African Americans Alzheimer’s disease sicker than people of European ancestry.However, most large-scale genetic studies Alzheimer’s disease Caucasian participants in disease studies. There are genes involved in Alzheimer’s disease The researchers explained in their study that certain variants may differ between ancestry. This means that findings from studies using only one ethnic group may not hold true for others, impeding dementia prevention and treatment. Studies have shown that it is accompanied by Alzheimer’s disease Although a disease of people with European ancestry, the effects of APOE E4 are half as strong as those of people with African ancestry.
Increasing the representation of non-European ancestral populations in genome-wide association studies has been identified as an important scientific and equity issue in genetic research. Differences in sample sizes between previous European and non-European ancestry studies may even contribute to health disparities among minority populations, according to this study.

To address this discrepancy, Boston VA researchers compared the genomes of over 4,000 MVP participants of African descent who had dementia and over 18,000 veterans who did not develop dementia. Did. The team also conducted his second analysis comparing his 7,000 black MVP participants who reported having a parent with dementia to his 56,000 other participants whose parents did not have dementia. It was conducted.This sample is more than double the size of her previous largest sample Alzheimer’s disease Genetic studies of individuals of African ancestry.
The results showed an association between dementia risk and variants in six different genes, including APOE. Many of these genes have been linked to dementia in previous genetic studies in people of European descent, but two of them were identified as significant risk factors in people of African descent. there was only one.
Although many of the gene variants identified in this study were associated with dementia within the group, specific gene variants associated with dementia risk differed between people of African and European descent. I was. in their race.
These new discoveries help fill knowledge gaps Alzheimer’s disease Ancestry-based risk, researchers say.Identifying population-specific genetic risk factors may lead to more accurate risk assessment for people of African descent and may also reveal new molecular targets for developing therapeutics. Alzheimer’s disease disease.
With more than 900,000 participants to date, MVP is one of the largest genetic research programs in the world. MVP researchers collect genetic data in addition to information on health, lifestyle, and military exposure to understand how genes influence health and disease.
MVP is also one of the most diverse genetic programs in the world. More than 150,000 African-American veterans have volunteered to participate in MVP, making him 18% of all participants. This means that MVP contains more people of African descent than any other biobank in the world. Thanks to its diversity and the altruism of participating veterans, MVP is working to bridge the racial gap in the link between genetics and disease.
“The sheer scale of MVP as one of the world’s largest genetic databases means that we can really advance what is known about how genes influence dementia risk.” said Logue. “Working on MVP data is an exciting opportunity for a researcher like me, and I am grateful to all the veterans who agreed to participate in this study.”