A Decreased Risk of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's in Your Genes?

Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and The DR4 Gene

    A recent Stanford led medical study about Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease has revealed that people with a mutation of the DR4 gene have a decreased risk of PD and Alzheimer's. About 1 in 5 people carry the mutation of the DR4 gene, which was discovered to reduce the chance of developing PD or Alzheimer's by 10%. Researchers also believe the tau proteins involved in Alzheimer's may also be involved with PD, hence the close relatedness of decreased risks that we see in this article and the gathered genomic-based conclusions. Other studies have shown that the DR4 mutation protects against PD, and combining the new research, it is believed that it may pose the same effect in preventing Alzheimer's. The data suggested that in people with DR4, there were fewer neurofibrillary tangles, which as associated with the tau proteins that aggressively effect the brains of those with Alzheimer's disease as it progresses, creating the plaque that impairs cognition.  There are immunological connections with DR4 as well, and they are promising enough to possibly initiate the creation of a vaccine that can attack and destroy the fibers that create the tau proteins coating the brain.

    With a significant increase in patients with both PD and Alzheimer's, this idea of a vaccine could be very promising and useful in the near future. Also, the fact that the scientists at Stanford were able to discover and pinpoint the exact gene is also very exciting as well. As we continue to make these advances in science and medicine, many things are looking up in our future and the future of middle aged individuals that will soon be susceptible to deteriorating and life altering diseases and conditions. Overall, this article was exciting to read because of how relevant this is to the conditions we are facing in the medical field, and have been, over the past two decades. With this in mind, what these scientists and Stanford University are doing is amazing, and I am ecstatic to be in the field of biology at this time in our world!

LINKS:

1) https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2023/08/stanford-medicine-led-study-finds-genetic-factor-fends-off-alzhe.html 

2) https://www.sciencealert.com/a-single-gene-variant-protects-from-both-alzheimers-and-parkinsons 

Matching Drugs to DNA Is 'New Era of Medicine'

 

According to a major report, scientists now have the technology to start a new era in medicine by precisely matching drugs to people's genetic code. This field of matching drugs to a person’s DNA is known as pharmacogenomics.

Drugs are complex substances and are often ineffective or become deadly because of subtle differences in a person’s body function. However, The British Pharmacological Society and the Royal College of Physicians say a genetic test, which may be available as early as next year, can predict how well drugs work with your body.

There have been real life cases in which drugs taken for one medical issue have caused severe damage and pain in other areas of the body. Professor Mark Caulfield explains that “99.5% of us have at least one change in our genome that, if we come across the wrong medicine, it will either not work or it will actually cause harm” (Gallagher, 2022).

Scientists have looked at the 100 most prescribed drugs in the UK and say that this genetic testing guide is ready for 40 of them. The test would cost around £100 and could be done using either a sample of blood or saliva.

I think that the 'one drug and one dose fits all' approach is going to become an outdated standard in the healthcare industry. The effectiveness and safety of medicines should be focused on each individual patient rather than as a generalized approach.

Tagged here is a related article providing additional information on this topic.

Researchers at 23andMe Determine Sleeping In Longer is Genetic

Figure 1. An adorable sleeping baby

23andMe has recently utilized their database to analyze 89,000 DNA sequences of people to determine if waking up early or sleeping in late is due to genetics. In addition to analyzing the DNA sequences, the profiles of each participant was analyzed to determine there characteristics such as sex, age, and illnesses. Through this data, the researchers have come to the conclusion that people that are female, are over 60 years old or are not suffering from insomnia are more likely to not stay up late and feel fine with waking up early. The opposite characteristics were true with people who stayed up late and slept in longer. However, this data is not 100% conclusive due to the fact that only people of European descent were studied, but it does provide substantial evidence due the vast number of participants.

I have always believed that this trait to be due to genetics, and I am not surprised that the data collected by 23andMe supports it. It would be interesting to see the if the researches would eventually be able to create better drugs to help people go to sleep and feel well rested when they wake. Or the possibility of a "Power Nap" pill where it would make a 30 minute nap equivalent to an 8 hour sleep. This would have a heavy impact on how the world worked because people would be able to work more and longer and still have many more hours in the day for family and spending the extra money they are making which would in turn boost the economy. This is a bit of a far fetched idea, but I believe we are one step closer to it with the new findings of the researchers.