Cognitive Labs

Gladstone Institute at UCSF and University of Texas researchers have found the APOEe4 genetic marker, known as the most significant genetic risk determinant of Alzheimer's Disease and a factor in heart disease and stroke, also may play a role in the severity of HIV in people who have the disease. Results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A seemingly trifling sequence difference of just one amino acid has profound implications for the structure and function of the APoE4 protein. ApoE4 has an extra intra-molecular bond that results in a more compact structure, and it also is more likely to be unstable, linked to its deleterious effects. Although the apoE3 gene is the most prevalent in all human populations, with frequencies of 50%, the genetic variant that leads to production of apoE4 is also widely distributed; its prevalence is 15.% (Some sources estimate at 20% or more of all humans)

Those with two copies of APOEe4, the homogeneous zygote, had a much more rapid progressions of HIV, leading to death, than those with two copies APOEe3.

The APOEe4 protein is smaller and more compact, but more unstable - than the APOEe2 and APOEe3. The reason for the APOEe4 mutation, it is hypothesized, helped people metabolize a lean, scarce diet and avoid starvation and possibly lowered the chance of child mortality. It also may be linked to colder temperatures, or possibly to those groups with the mutation who migrated into northern latitudes - it is more prevalent in Finland as a percentage of the population than anywhere else on earth, and also amongst relatively homogeneous ethnic groups (for example, German Russians) where increased APOEe4 risk has followed such groups even after migrating to North America where it is seen in distinct family histories of Alzheimer's Disease.

Labels: apoe, apoee3, apoee4, gladstone, homogeneous, texas, ucsf, zygote

UCSF's Dr. Mike Weiner, who helps veterans with Alzheimer's and also Traumatic Brain Injury(TBI) was featured in the SF Chronicle today. You can register for a study at http://brain.com - just follow the UCSF link.

Dr. Weiner swims in the Bay every day and his real age, so to speak, is much younger than his calendar age.

Of Dr. Weiner, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says:

"There's a saying in the military that on the battlefield no soldier will be left behind," she told The Chronicle. "We have made a promise that when our troops come home, no veteran will be left behind. The innovative and groundbreaking research by Dr. Weiner and his team at UCSF helps keep that promise, especially as more of our soldiers return home from Iraq with lifelong injuries and disabilities."

This kind of selfless work deserves the highest applause.

Labels: ucsf, Veterans, weiner