A new study has found the immune system in the blood of Alzheimer's patients is epigenetically altered. That means the patients' behavior or environment has caused changes that affect the way their genes work. Many of these altered immune genes are the same ones that increase an individual's risk for Alzheimer's.
A new study has found the immune system in the blood of Alzheimer's patients is epigenetically altered. That means the patients' behavior or environment has caused changes that affect the way their genes work. Many of these altered immune genes are the same ones that increase an individual's risk for Alzheimer's. Scientists now theorize the cause could be a previous viral infection, environmental pollutants or other lifestyle factors and behaviors.
"It is possible that these findings implicate the peripheral immune response in Alzheimer's disease risk," said lead investigator David Gate, assistant professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine."We haven't yet untangled whether these changes are reflective of brain pathology or whether they precipitate the disease.
"The brain is emitting a signal that it is damaged, and the T cells are homing to that signal by their antenna, CXCR3," Gate said. "Altogether, these findings indicate that immune function in Alzheimer's patients is significantly altered," Gate said."It could be that environmental factors, like pollutants, or infections that a person has in their lifetime cause these epigenetic changes."
Abhirami Ramakrishnan, Natalie Piehl, Brooke Simonton, Milan Parikh, Ziyang Zhang, Victoria Teregulova, Lynn van Olst, David Gate.Scientists have identified a set of human genes that fight SARS-CoV-2 infection, the virus that causes COVID-19. Knowing which genes help control viral infection can greatly assist researchers' ...
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