Three Alzheimer's genetic risk factors linked to immune cell dysfunction

Wednesday, July 20, 2016 - 13:21 in Health & Medicine

A new study has uncovered details of how a type of immune cell helps the brain get rid of the tiny amyloid-beta aggregates that can clump together to form the plaques characteristic of Alzheimer's. The researchers found that TREM2 mutations can derail the immune cell's plaque-clearing activity, as can two other genes already known to increase a person's risk for Alzheimer's: APOE and APOJ (known as clusterin).

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