Dr. Tim Hohman recently presented findings from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) that confirmed a link between resilience to Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology and ATP8B1, a gene also involved with bile processing in the liver. Dr. Hohman's approach harmonized data from four different study cohorts, giving his team an exceptionally large sample size (5,108) to work with.
Dr. Hohman is hopeful that the findings from this study will have impacts down the line: “Now that we have observed that this gene, the ATP8B1 gene, is associated with resilience and susceptibility to AD, we may be able to move forward and focus efforts on developing it as a therapeutic target."
Importantly, Dr. Hohman and his team also demonstrated that, while they overlap, ultimately the genetic drivers of resilience to Alzheimer's are separate from genetic pathways that increase risk for the disease.
You can read more about the findings here:
- Gene Involved in Bile Processing Tied to Alzheimer's Disease
- Doubling Down on Sequencing Serves up More Alzheimer's Genes
Full paper accessible here:
