For their findings, genetic material from more than 25,000 Alzheimer's patients and more than 48,000 healthy controls was analyzed. The pivotal point in the process was the so-called genome-wide association study (GWAS). In this procedure, the genome with its billions of building blocks is not fully catalogued, but only relevant positions are investigated.

It was already known that genetic characteristics may facilitate Alzheimer's disease, but need not necessarily trigger it. So far eleven such risk factors were known, with eleven more now added. The importance of the newly discovered sites in the genome is still unknown, however it is suspected that they are involved in nerve cell transport and immunological functions.

For more information: http://www.innovations-report.de/