As many as 13 rare genomic variants associated with Alzheimer’s disease were discovered as part of a new study in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
For the study, researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in collaboration with Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, analyzed the genomes of over 2,000 participants as part of nearly 600 families, some of which had a history of Alzheimer’s disease.
As detailed in the findings, 13 rare gene variants associated with Alzheimer’s were unveiled, providing the potential for future development of drug treatments.
“With this study, we believe we have created a new template for going beyond standard GWAS and association of disease with common genome variants, in which you miss much of the genetic landscape of the disease,” said one co-author in a news release.
“This paper brings us to the next stage of disease-gene discovery by allowing us to look at the entire sequence of the human genome and assess the rare genomic variants, which we couldn’t do before,” added the study’s lead author in the release.
The study was also conducted in affiliation with the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
