A newly discovered gene may explain why more women are developing Alzheimer’s disease

Researchers have discovered a gene that appears to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in women, and it may be new evidence as to why women develop the disease more often than men.

A gene called methylguanine DNA methyltransferase MGMT may be the reason why women are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease more often than men. The gene plays an important role in how the body repairs damaged DNA in both sexes, but in men, researchers have been unable to find any link between MGMT and Alzheimer’s disease, according to reports. CNN.

Says the co-author of the study Lindsey Freredirector of biomedical genetics at Boston University School of Medicine, tells CNN.

two thirds of women

In the United States, according to Alzheimer’s AssociationTwo-thirds of the total 6.5 million women have Alzheimer’s disease. It is located in Sweden, according to Dementia Associationabout 100,000 people develop Alzheimer’s disease and each year about 15,000 develop the disease.

“Women, due to unique genetic risk factors such as APOE 4 and MGMT, and gender-specific risk factors such as the sudden drop in estrogen during menopause, may be on the fast track to disease, while men are in line,” Richard Isaacson to CNN. He is director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic at Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt School of Medicine, and was not involved in the study.

Perhaps an important piece of the puzzle

The APOE ε4 gene is the greatest risk factor for the future development of Alzheimer’s disease in people over 65 years of age and this is especially true for women who, according to Richard Isaacson, are more affected by APOE ε4 than are men.

However, many women who carry this gene do not develop Alzheimer’s disease and women who do not carry this gene can develop the disease. Richard Isaacson says MGMT may be an important missing piece of the puzzle in predicting risk for women, but more studies are needed.

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