#apoe4

Flimsy Protection

APOE is a protein that carries fat in the blood. There are different genetic versions of APOE, and people who inherit one or two copies of the APOε4 (APOE4) form have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than people with other forms of the protein, such as APOε3 (APOE3). How a fat-carrying protein contributes to brain problems has been a mystery, but scientists recently found a clue. The brain’s neurons are coated with a fatty substance called myelin, which both protects the cells and enables their high-speed firing. Studies of postmortem brains show people with APOE4 (bottom row) have less myelin (dark staining) than people with APOE3 (top row), suggesting the APOE4 neurons may be more prone to failure and degeneration. In mice, scientists have been able to fix APOE4’s shortcomings – improving neuronal myelination and the animals’ learning and memory – providing a glimmer of hope for future clinical intervention.

Written by Ruth Williams

Image from work by Joel W. Blanchard, Leyla Anne Akay, Jose Davila-Velderrain and Djuna von Maydell, and colleagues

Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

Image copyright held by the original authors

Research published in Nature, November 2022

The Link Between ‘Alzheimer’s Gene’ and COVID-19

Alzheimer’s disease risk gene APOE4 impairs function of brain immune cells

Carriers of Alzheimer’s genetic marker have greater difficulty harnessing past knowledge

Alzheimer's Risk Gene May Aggravate Neurological Air Pollution Effects in Children

Carriers of this genetic variant had higher behaviour problem scores and their attention capacity developed more slowly.

Researchers Fix Genetic Risk Factor of Alzheimer's in Human Brain Cells

Using human brain cells, scientists at the Gladstone Institutes discovered the cause of--and a potential solution for--the primary genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, a gene called apoE4.

Gene Variant May Increase Psychiatric Risk After TBI

In the group without a TBI, the researchers found no differences in depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms between those with or without APOE4.

Study Provides Robust Evidence of Sex Differences with Alzheimer’s Gene

APOE association was much greater for women with the tau pathway.