Alzheimer’s therapies should target a particular gene, researchers say

UCL researchers say Alzheimer’s drug development should focus on the Apoe gene, especially the risk-raising variants Apoe3 and Apoe4.
They argue that blocking the harmful effects of these Apoe variants could prevent most Alzheimer’s cases.
The team analysed medical records from more than 450,000 people of European ancestry.
Their estimates suggest 72% to 93% of Alzheimer’s cases would not have occurred without Apoe3 and Apoe4.
They also estimated about 45% of all dementia cases would be prevented without those variants.
The push comes as current Alzheimer’s drugs that remove toxic brain proteins only slow the disease modestly and were not widely recommended by NICE.
Researchers say Apoe-related interventions could benefit almost all potential Alzheimer’s cases.
Experts warned that Apoe is important for cholesterol transport, so completely blocking it could be risky and is not an imminent therapy.

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