20 Percent of Population Carry Alzheimer’s Protecting Gene

A natural protector against Alzheimer’s disease has been discovered by researchers from the University of California San Francisco and the Glandstone Institute. Researchers have found that a gene carried by 20 percent of the population can mitigate the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

The scientists were studying a variant of the Klothos gene, also known as KL-VS, and discovered that people who had the KL-VS gene performed better on cognitive function tests per Daily Digest News. When scientists duplicated the effect in mice test subjects, synaptic plasticity â€" the connection between neurons â€" was strengthened due to an increase of activity of a cell receptor associated with forming memories.

20 percent of the population are genetically protected against Alzheimer’s disease a study shows.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

“Based on what was known about klotho, we expected it to affect the brain by changing the aging process,” said lead author Lennart Mucke, MD, director of neurological research at the Gladstone Institutes and professor of neurology and at UCSF. “But this is not what we found, which suggested to us that we were on to something new and different.”

The discovery provides a huge breakthrough into the insight as to how genes can improve cognitive ability and could revolutionize the treated of diseases similar to Alzheimer’s. Because higher levels of klotho protein seem to help increase cognitive function throughout a person’s life, artificially raising klotho levels could help build a cognitive reserve as a bastion against the disease.

Rather than stop dementia, the increased klotho levels of a person offer a higher starting point of decline in cognitive ability and function.

It is estimated that about 20 percent of the population carry the KL-VS variant of the klotho gene or 1 in 5 people. Previous research also indicated that higher levels of klotho can lessen the potential for cardiovascular disease and is associated with living a longer life.

Researchers published these findings in the May 8 journal Cell Reports.