Beneath the surface. Endophenotypes sound great on paper. As the actual disease phenotype is difficult to classify and complicated, a biomarker is used for genetic analysis that is assumed to be closer to the genetic underpinnings of a disease than the disease itself. A recent study in Cell now investigates the hunt for risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease using a well-established endophenotype. The results demonstrate the complexity of endophenotypes and the difficulties in interpretation. Continue reading
Tag Archives: APP
Mutations don’t always cause disease, quite the opposite
A mutation in APP protecting against Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is one of the leading causes of dementia in the Western world. In rare familial forms of Alzheimer’s disease, variants in the APP gene are well-known to be disease-causing. This led Jonnson and colleagues to search for additional rare variants in the APP gene that might be associated with further cases of Alzheimer’s disease. When they analysed their datasets, they stumbled across an associated APP variant. However, this variant does not increase the risk for Alzheimer’s, it reduces it… Continue reading
