"Supergene" Can Help Ward Off Dementia In Older Ager People
U.S. scientists have discovered a gene variant called CETP VV, which if present in people helps them live past 90 years or more of age. The study also suggests that people blessed with this "supergene" may have better memory and brainpower, thus helping ward off Alziemer's disease.
According to the scientists at the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, the newly discovered gene variant can help people live longer without developing dementia, the confused thinking and memory loss that is characteristics of old people.
Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute and his colleagues had found people who inherit this gene variant seemed to age slowly and were also protected against life-shortening ailments such as heart disease.
According to BBC reports, the team studied 158 people of Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jewish descent who were 95 or older and found that older people who had inherited the gene variant were twice as likely to have good brain function, able to think clearly and remember new information as compared to older people sans the gene.
By studying various groups of people for eight years, the scientists also found that the gene variant helps ward off against Alzheimer's dementia. The findings suggested that the participants who never developed dementia were five times more likely to have the favorable gene than those who did have dementia.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive cognitive deterioration together with declining activities of daily living and neuropsychiatric symptoms or behavioral changes. It is the most common type of dementia.
However, the researchers were not very clear as to how this "supergene" protects people but according to previous studies, the gene is responsible for the size of the lipoproteins in the blood that deposit or clear away cholesterol.
The study also says people with the gene variant tend to be at less risk of clogged arteries.
The researchers believe that the new findings could lead to ways of protecting cognitive function in old age by developing drugs that work in the same way as the protective function of the CETP VV variant does.
