A team of BRC-funded researchers, have shown for the first time that the genetic profile for Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) is unique.
This is a common type of dementia that shares many aspects with both Parkinson’s (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and until now was considered a combination of both conditions. However, for the first time, research suggests that the genetic risk profile is in fact unique.
Dr Rita Guerreiro, co-author of the paper published in Lancet Neurology, explains the significance of this finding:
“We found genetic regions that are associated with the risk of developing DLB. It does not occur in families very frequently and so a role for a genetic component was never obvious. DLB does not seem to be simply a mix of PD and AD, since some of the most associated regions are not present. This suggests it has a unique genetic profile.”
The study was a large collaborative project with research groups in 11 different countries. This was the only way to collect a sufficient number of samples from DLB patients to be able to perform the genetic testing. Researchers compared the frequency of each of the ~8 million genetic markers between these cases and a large group of controls, in what is called a genome-wide association study [GWAS].
Commenting on the implications of the study findings, Dr Bras, who led the study, said: “For the first time, we can start to tease apart individuals that are more likely to develop DLB, from those that are more likely to develop PD or AD. This has important implications for clinical trials, for example, where you want to include very well-defined individuals. These results allow us to start to do this”.
