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A new study has uncovered genes that could be related to <keyword id="21415597" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="heart-conditions" source="keywords">heart conditions</keyword> and <keyword id="20097972" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Alzheimers-disease" source="keywords">Alzheimer's disease</keyword>, suggesting that the two could have similar origins. Researchers said that evidence increasingly links people having the heart condition with a quicker <keyword id="20097971" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cognitive-decline" source="keywords">cognitive decline</keyword> and a 26% increased risk of dementia, affecting one's memory and thinking, and interfering with daily activities. Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia. <keyword id="20849758" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="coronary-artery-disease" source="keywords">Coronary artery disease</keyword> is a condition in which blood flow to the heart is restricted due to narrowing of blood vessels. Even abnormal levels of fat in blood and inflammation could be possible shared risk factors between having coronary artery disease and developing Alzheimer's disease, the researchers at Edith Cowan University, Australia said. However, the processes underlying the link remain unclear. In this study, they employed genetic methods to examine the intricate relationship between heart disease and Alzheimer's disease. The team chose to study seven heart disease-related factors, such as coronary artery disease and angina, and 13 lipids, including cholesterol - both 'good' and 'bad'. Previous studies have long suggested lipids to play a role in the development of Alzheimer's disease, they said. "Our comprehensive analysis reveals a significant and positive global genetic correlation between Alzheimer's disease and three <keyword id="22817116" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="lipid-traits" source="keywords">lipid traits</keyword>: LDL ('bad' cholesterol), triglycerides, and total cholesterol," the authors wrote in the study published in the <keyword id="22817118" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="International-Journal-of-Molecular-Sciences" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="International Journal of Molecular Sciences" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="International Journal of Molecular Sciences">International Journal of Molecular Sciences</keyword>. This suggests that certain lipids, not all, may have a more direct genetic link with Alzheimer's disease, they said. However, many of the lipids that the authors studied were genetically related with coronary artery disease. "Specifically, we found significant genetic correlations between coronary artery disease traits and lipid profiles such as HDL, LDL, triglycerides, and total cholesterol, aligning with the existing literature that underscores the genetic interplay in <keyword id="22817117" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cardiovascular-risk-factors" source="keywords">cardiovascular risk factors</keyword>," they wrote. By applying genetic approaches to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between Alzheimer's disease and coronary artery disease, we have uncovered novel insights into the underlying mechanisms linking these conditions, corresponding author Emmanuel Adewuyi, from Edith Cowan University, said.

Genetic connections between Alzheimer's disease, heart conditions found, notes recent study

<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image">TEDStephen Friend spoke at TED 2014 in Vancouver.</div></div>When trying to understand a disease, researchers typically study sick patients.
In many cases, genetic factors can explain why some people get sick, or why people are predisposed to an illness. But most of the time, knowing about a genetic predisposition for certain diseases hasn't shown us how to prevent or cure that illness.
So maybe looking at sick people is the wrong approach.
Instead, we need to find the people who are genetically predisposed to these diseases but don't get sick, say biochemist Stephen Friend, president of Sage Bionetworks, and Eric Schadt, director of the Icahn Institute for Genomics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Friend and Schadt are the principle investigators for the <a href="http://resilienceproject.me/" target="_blank">Resilience Project</a>, an initiative that's trying to study those rare people who have the same genetic factors that normally cause disease but who are somehow protected by either genetic mutations or environmental factors.
<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_friend_the_hunt_for_unexpected_genetic_heroes#t-374738" target="_blank">In a TED 2014 talk</a> released online today, Friend calls these people "unexpected heroes" - most people don't know they have these hidden protective traits that could perhaps help others.
It turns out, he explains, that there are precedents for finding people like this and creating therapies based on the factors that make them unique.
In 1980s and 1990s, doctors realized that a very small number of people with high levels of HIV never developed AIDS, he explains. They had certain genetic mutations that prevented them from getting sick. Now, treatments for AIDS are being developed based on those mutations.
Along the same lines, most individuals who have high lipid levels, meaning fatty acids and cholesterol, develop heart disease. But there are some who don't. This can sometimes be explained by genetic mutations or protective environmental factors. Once these are better understood, they may provide new strategies for fighting heart disease.
<h2>From detection to treatment</h2>
There are 127 diseases that researchers have clearly identified as being caused by a single gene, according to an article <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/344/6187/970" target="_blank">published today in Science</a> by Schadt and Friend, and researchers have linked thousands of gene variants to diseases ranging from Alzheimer's and type 1 diabetes to various cancers and asthma. Yet, they write, even though they've pinpointed genetic risk factors, that hasn't necessarily turned into an effective treatment.
Part of the problem is that knowing what makes people sick does not mean we know what keeps others healthy.
But if the Resilience Project is a success, they'll be able to identify the genetic mutations and environmental factors that keep certain people from getting sick. Then, at some point, it might be possible to develop drugs and preventative treatments based on those factors.
Once the project identifies those rare people who are resistant to certain diseases, they need to see what these people have in common. In order to do this, they need to have a certain number of those people in the first place, which is the hard part, as they're quite rare.
They've already begun to gather genetic information to look for people who have genetic predisposition to serious diseases that should have showed up during childhood, but didn't. According to the Resilience Project website, they estimate that <a href="http://resilienceproject.me/what-you-get-back" target="_blank">only 1 out of every 20,000 people</a> will have some kind of uncommon resilience.
Since they need as many people involved as possible, in terms of individuals who provide their genetic data and organizations that will help them analyze it, this is an open source project - the genetic data will be publicly accessible (though individual information will be confidential).
So far, by collaborating with Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, 23andMe, a Finnish hospital, and other organizations, they've been able to check more than 500,000 DNA samples, and have found dozens of people who should have developed some kind of genetic illness, but didn't.
Now, they're recruiting individuals who are willing to join the project through <a href="http://resilienceproject.me/" target="_blank">their website</a>. This summer, they'll start gathering data from anyone willing to send in a DNA sample. They won't provide any information to volunteers unless they do happen to have a genetic mutation and not the associated disease - but they hope that the ability to contribute to a project that could transform medicine will be enough.
Watch the TED talk:

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Genetic connections between Alzheimer's disease, heart conditions found, notes recent study

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