Alzheimer’s Disease Essay examples -- Alzheimers Disease Essays

Alzheimers disease is a neurodegenerative disorder affecting memory, cognitive and non-cognitive functions. Studies lay down that most cases of Alzheimers disease pertains to people who are 60 years of age or older meanwhile, 80% of these cases are due to genetics. The risk of cardinal having Alzheimers disease varies with their age and ethnicity. That being said, some elders are obtaining this disease in very late life, nearing their 90s. The gene that is usually responsible for Alzheimer s disease (AD) is the Apolipoprotein E (APOE gene) which gets its name from encoding for the protein Apolipoprotein. It is on chromosome 19 and has three main allelomorphs on the gene that seem to be responsible for this disease. They are 2, containing cysteine at position 112 and arginine at position 158 of the gene, 3 containing cysteine at both 112 and 158 positions, and 4 containing arginine at both 112 and 158 positions of the gene. The APOE 4 allele is the diseases most public allele . The APOE 4 allele is the diseases most prevalent allele. The function of this gene is to regulate cholesterol and triglyceride metabolisms. This shows it is not only coincidental that high cholesterol and diabetes lead to late-onset Alzheimers. The APOE 4 allele was tested and discovered to be so dangerous in 1993. Since, many more studies have been completed on this allele and it has been known to be the main cause of Alzheimers disease. Once all the human genotype was known after using the Human Genome Project, a microarray scheme used to study over 80 percent of the Caucasian genome for association signals called the 500K GeneChip from Affymetrix was created. This microarray kit was used to confirm that using high-density single nuc... ...sion, the results point researchers in the slump direction proving that late on-set Alzheimers is very closely related to this APOE locus, especially the 4 allele. Further studies may also show that this allele will belike contrib ute to other diseases as well. With the use of ultra-high density genome, further associations will be made regarding the link between late on-set Alzheimers and the APOE locus.Works CitedCoon, Keith D. Ph.D. Amanda J. Myers, Ph.D. David W. Craig, Ph.D. Jennifer A. Webster, B.A. behind V. Pearson, B.Sc. Diane Hu Lince, Ph.D. Victoria L. Zismann, M.S. Thomas G. Beach, M.D. Doris Leung, M.D. A High-Density Whole-Genome Association Study Reveals That APOE Is the Major Susceptibility Gene for Sporadic Late-Onset Alzheimers Disease. Physicians Post Graduate Press. J Clin Psychiatry 684, April 2007 613-618. (Print)