Scientists isolate genes that delay Alzheimer’s Disease »

Scientists have identified a network of nine genes that play a key role in the onset of Alzheimer's Disease. The finding could help scientists develop new treatments to delay the onset of the disease, said lead researcher Associate Professor Mauricio Arcos-Burgos from  The John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) at ANU. In a study of a family of 5,000 people in Columbia, scientists identified genes that delayed the disease, and others that accelerated it, and by how much. "If you can work out how to decelerate the disease, then you can have a profound impact," Associate Professor Arcos-Burgos, a medical geneticist,  said. "I think it will be more successful to delay the onset of the disease than to prevent it completely. Even if we delay the onset by on average one year, that will mean nine million fewer people have the disease in 2050." Alzheimer's disease affects up to 35 million people around the world and is predicted to affect one in 85 people globally by 2050. The Columbian family are afflicted by a type of hereditary Alzheimer's.