University of South Wales university found out what contribution to the development of Alzheimer’s disease genes and the environment. For this purpose, researchers studied single-rich and dialing twins, determining the accumulation of amyloid plaques in the brain of patients using positron-emission tomography (PET). This is reported in the article published in the journal Journal of Neurology.
Scientists are often resorted to the study of single-time twins, in which genomas are almost 100 percent identical to associate the effect of genes and environmental factors with the development of various diseases. Any phenotypic or behavioral differences in single-person twins are most likely due to the powerful action of environmental factors, despite the presence of many common features. For dialicidate or diverse twins, which also grow together, there are only 50 percent of identical genes, that is, the genetic differences in them, on the contrary, is stronger than differences in environmental factors.
The study was attended by 61 pairs of single-person twins and 42 dialing couples at the age of 71, which PET scans conducted to identify the degree of accumulation of amyloid – protein, which begins to accumulate in the brain at the early stage of Alzheimer’s disease. It turned out that the genes play only a moderate role in the accumulation of amyloid in the brain.
However, experts have not yet been able to find out which third-party factors contribute to Alzheimer’s disease. So, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol or heart diseases were not related to the risk of accumulation of amyloid in the brain. The authors of the work noted that more large-scale research is needed.