Delaying the onset of Alzheimer's disease to as much as 17 years could be possible, according to Australian researchers who were able to identify genes that play a major role in the onset of the disease.
The researchers, led by Australian National University professor Mauricio Arcos-Burgos, studied a large family of 5,000 people who live in the western mountains of Columbia. The family, which has been affected by a hereditary type of Alzheimer's, was identified as an ideal source of genetic samples because of their close-knit ties.
The researchers were able to isolate a network of nine genes that influence the start of the disease. Some of these accelerated the onset of Alzheimer's while others delayed it. They were also able to determine by how much the disease onset could be accelerated or delayed by these genes.
"If you can work out how to decelerate the disease, then you can have a profound impact," Arcos-Burgos said in a news release.
He said delaying the onset could be better than preventing Alzheimer's altogether. Delaying it by even just a year "will mean nine million fewer people have the disease in 2050," he explained.
Putting environmental factors aside, the researchers were able to trace the Columbian family's predisposition to Alzheimer's disease back to a founder mutation in a family member who arrived in the area about five centuries ago, and they isolated the nine genes that control Alzheimer's disease onset.
They are now set to do the same analysis on the Queanbeyan people in New South Wales, Australia.
The study was published Dec. 1 in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
