ScienceDaily (Sep. 11, 2012) — In a recent study, investigators at Boston University Schools of Medicine (BUSM) and Public Health (BUSPH) identified a gene linking age-related cataracts and Alzheimer's disease. The findings, published online in PLoS ONE, contribute to the growing body of evidence showing that these two diseases, both associated with increasing age, may share common etiologic factors.
Share This:
See Also:
Gyungah Jun, PhD, from the departments of medicine, ophthalmology and biostatistics at BUSM and BUSPH, served as the study's lead author. Lindsay A. Farrer, PhD, professor of medicine, neurology, ophthalmology, genetics & genomics, epidemiology and biostatistics and chief of the Biomedical Genetics Section at BUSM, was the study's senior author.
Using the Framingham Offspring Eye Study cohort, investigators looked at brain MRI findings on or after 10 years from the original eye exam and concluded that there was a significant correlation between a quantitative measure of cortical cataract and several Alzheimer's disease-related measures of brain degeneration, in particular volume of the temporal horn which is a brain structure that is progressively enlarged in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Another strong correlation in these same individuals, between cortical cataract formation and poorer performance on several cognitive tests administered at the time of the MRI scan, further supports this link.
With such a link not confounded by age or sex, the investigators then performed a genome-wide association study looking at nearly 190,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), or DNA sequence variations. Three intronic (non-coding) SNPs in the gene encoding
Share This:
See Also:
Gyungah Jun, PhD, from the departments of medicine, ophthalmology and biostatistics at BUSM and BUSPH, served as the study's lead author. Lindsay A. Farrer, PhD, professor of medicine, neurology, ophthalmology, genetics & genomics, epidemiology and biostatistics and chief of the Biomedical Genetics Section at BUSM, was the study's senior author.
Using the Framingham Offspring Eye Study cohort, investigators looked at brain MRI findings on or after 10 years from the original eye exam and concluded that there was a significant correlation between a quantitative measure of cortical cataract and several Alzheimer's disease-related measures of brain degeneration, in particular volume of the temporal horn which is a brain structure that is progressively enlarged in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Another strong correlation in these same individuals, between cortical cataract formation and poorer performance on several cognitive tests administered at the time of the MRI scan, further supports this link.
With such a link not confounded by age or sex, the investigators then performed a genome-wide association study looking at nearly 190,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), or DNA sequence variations. Three intronic (non-coding) SNPs in the gene encoding