Authors
Lesley Jones, Peter A Holmans, Marian L Hamshere, Denise Harold, Valentina Moskvina, Dobril Ivanov, Andrew Pocklington, Richard Abraham, Paul Hollingworth, Rebecca Sims, Amy Gerrish, Jaspreet Singh Pahwa, Nicola Jones, Alexandra Stretton, Angharad R Morgan, Simon Lovestone, John Powell, Petroula Proitsi, Michelle K Lupton, Carol Brayne, David C Rubinsztein, Michael Gill, Brian Lawlor, Aoibhinn Lynch, Kevin Morgan, Kristelle S Brown, Peter A Passmore, David Craig, Bernadette McGuinness, Stephen Todd, Clive Holmes, David Mann, A David Smith, Seth Love, Patrick G Kehoe, Simon Mead, Nick Fox, Martin Rossor, John Collinge, Wolfgang Maier, Frank Jessen, Britta Schürmann, Hendrik van den Bussche, Isabella Heuser, Oliver Peters, Johannes Kornhuber, Jens Wiltfang, Martin Dichgans, Lutz Frölich, Harald Hampel, Michael Hüll, Dan Rujescu, Alison M Goate, John SK Kauwe, Carlos Cruchaga, Petra Nowotny, John C Morris, Kevin Mayo, Gill Livingston, Nicholas J Bass, Hugh Gurling, Andrew McQuillin, Rhian Gwilliam, Panos Deloukas, Ammar Al-Chalabi, Christopher E Shaw, Andrew B Singleton, Rita Guerreiro, Thomas W Mühleisen, Markus M Nöthen, Susanne Moebus, Karl-Heinz Jöckel, Norman Klopp, H-Erich Wichmann, Eckhard Rüther, Minerva M Carrasquillo, V Shane Pankratz, Steven G Younkin, John Hardy, Michael C O'Donovan, Michael J Owen, Julie Williams
Publication date
2010/11/15
Journal
PloS one
Volume
5
Issue
11
Pages
e13950
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Description
Background
Late Onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) is the leading cause of dementia. Recent large genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identified the first strongly supported LOAD susceptibility genes since the discovery of the involvement of APOE in the early 1990s. We have now exploited these GWAS datasets to uncover key LOAD pathophysiological processes.
Methodology
We applied a recently developed tool for mining GWAS data for biologically meaningful information to a LOAD GWAS dataset. The principal findings were then tested in an independent GWAS dataset.
Principal Findings
We found a significant overrepresentation of association signals in pathways related to cholesterol metabolism and the immune response in both of the two largest genome-wide association studies for LOAD.
Significance
Processes related to cholesterol metabolism and the innate immune response have previously been implicated by pathological and epidemiological studies of Alzheimer's disease, but it has been unclear whether those findings reflected primary aetiological events or consequences of the disease process. Our independent evidence from two large studies now demonstrates that these processes are aetiologically relevant, and suggests that they may be suitable targets for novel and existing therapeutic approaches.
Total citations
Scholar articles
L Jones, PA Holmans, ML Hamshere, D Harold… - PloS one, 2010
L Jones, PA Holmans, H Marian, D Harold, V Moskvina… - Alzheimer's & Dementia, 2010