An elderly woman in Colombia had been unaffected by Alzheimers even though many members of her family had developed dementia in middle age. At the age of 73 she was flown to the United States so researchers could figure out why.
They knew she posessed the same genes which caused many of her family to succumb to the disease but they wanted to know if another gene variation could be protecting her.
It was found that she had a mutation of the APOE gene. Nobody can be sure only gene is responsible for the maintence of her health but the signs are promising.
The APOE gene is involved in the metabolism of fats in the body and has been known to affect the onset of Alzheimers. Three versions of the gene exist: one lowers the risk, one doesn’t affec the risk, and one increases the risk.
The thought is that even though the woman has a family history of dementia, the one genetic variant helps her combat the disease.
The APOE gene consists of 3597 base pairs on chromsome 19. Chromosome 19 spans more than 58.6 million base pairs, and humans have 23 chromosome pairs. It speaks to the level of technology avaiable to humans that such a small portion of the DNA sequence can be studied and manipulated.
This is an interesing development in the study of genetics and may provide some clues as to the future of genetic manipulation. It means it might be possible to alter one gene and affect a human who might be at risk for a negative outcome otherwise.
Taking this concept further, what if there are other conditions that can be subjected to this sort of genetic editing? A whole range of conditions could, in theory, be affected by the manipulation of the genome. This is actually the subject of a trilogy about to be released next year. In the books, the editing of humans is commonplace, making them happier, healthier, and smarter. This is a vast oversimplification of the current state of technology but an interesting premise to explore.
