Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have discovered a common genetic variant that greatly impacts normal brain aging, starting at around age 65, and may modify the risk for neurodegenerative diseases. The findings could…highlight potential new targets for the prevention or treatment of age-associated brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.
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“If you look at a group of seniors, some will look older than their peers and some will look younger,” said the study’s co-leader Asa Abeliovich, professor of pathology and neurology…at CUMC. “The same differences in aging can be seen in the frontal cortex…Our findings show that many of these differences are tied to variants of a gene called TMEM106B. People who have two ‘bad’ copies of this gene have a frontal cortex that, by various biological measures, appears 12 years older that those who have two normal copies.”
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“It appears that if you have these genetic variants, brain aging accelerates and that increases vulnerability to brain disease. And vice versa: if you have brain disease, the disease accelerates brain aging. It’s a vicious cycle,” Dr. Abeliovich.
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