Chinese experts reveal the secret that women are more susceptible to Alzheimer's disease
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, May 4 (Reporter Xia Ke) Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the diseases that seriously threaten the health of the elderly in the world.
Data show that the prevalence of the disease is higher in women than in men.
Recently, the team of Professor Lu Jie from Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University found that women carrying a specific apolipoprotein (APOE ε4) allele can increase the accumulation of specific proteins (tau protein) in the brain, which makes them more susceptible to disease; while men The accumulation of specific proteins in the brain increases significantly when two specific alleles are carried.
This is why women are more susceptible to Alzheimer's disease.
According to reports, it is known that a certain apolipoprotein (APOE ε4) is the largest risk gene for Alzheimer's disease, and the abnormal aggregation of a specific protein (tau protein) caused by it is one of the characteristic pathological changes of the disease.
This study is to explore whether there are gender differences in the accumulation of specific proteins in the brains of Alzheimer's patients with different numbers of specific alleles, and to reveal the reasons for the gender differences in the disease.
Lu Jie said that women accounted for about two-thirds of Alzheimer's disease patients, and this gender difference in prevalence is getting more and more attention.
This study explains to a certain extent the reason for the high prevalence of Alzheimer's disease in women, and is of great significance to clinical diagnosis and treatment.
Based on the results of this research, it is necessary to focus clinically on female carriers of the above-mentioned specific alleles, and to consider specific treatments for them to achieve the purpose of early prevention.
According to reports, the study included 268 patients with cognitive impairment, providing imaging evidence that the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease in women is higher than that in men. The research results will be published in the top international journal of Neuroscience in April 2021. "BRAIN" was published online.