Gene that boosts Alzheimer’s risk might protect against it too

Different types of the APOE gene were put in mice in order to develop potential Alzheimer's disease treatments.  The APOE4 gene increased plaque formation and amyloid beta in the brains of mice; where as, the APOE2 helped to decrease plaque density and amyloid beta, which protected against Alzheimer's.  According to the study, an increase of APOE4 seemed to cause a decrease in synapses, while APOE2 appeared to protect neural connections.


In the future, treatments that in decrease APOE4 while increasing APOE2 may be developed to treat and/or prevent Alzheimer's.  Therapies or potentially drugs may be invented to manipulate the APOE gene.

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