New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias

S.J. van der Lee, I. De Rojas, H. Holstege, M. Hulsman, M.J.T. Reinders, N. Tesi, Jeroen van Rooij, Y. Zhao, X. Zhang, More Authors

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

348 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage
genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/‘proxy’ AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)412-436
Number of pages25
JournalNature Genetics
Volume54
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

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