Sidebar: Genetics of Alzheimer's Disease -- Further Information
Back in 1907, Alois Alzheimer first noticed the two main neuropathological hallmarks of the disease-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles-in the brain tissue of a 51-year-old demented woman. The idea that abnormal deposition of ß-amyloid (also called Ab) was the primary cause was given considerable weight by the 1991 discovery that a rare inherited form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease was caused by a mutant form of the gene encoding amyloid precursor protein (APP), which is found on chromosome 21.
UNCONVINCED: Warren Strittmatter is skeptical that presenilin mutations work through an amyloid-related mechanism. But others focused on mechanisms involving neurofibrillary tangles, especially after the 1993 discovery of the role of apolipoprotein E (apoE) in Alzheimer's. There are three main alleles of apoE-E2, E3, and E4. Warren J. Strittmatter, Allen Roses, and their colleagues at Duke University Medical Center determined that individuals who inherit one ...
