Genetics of Alzheimer's disease in understudied populations
Alzheimer's disease is more common in non-Caucasians, with a prevalence about twice as high in African Americans and 1.5 times as high in Hispanic Americans. Despite this, non-Caucasians are in general understudied in Alzheimer's disease research. The Precision Medicine in Neurodegeneration Lab led or contributed to genetic studies in African Americans that demonstrated that genetic risk variants in this population may be different than those of Caucasians.
Dr. Ertekin-Taner led the Florida Consortium for African American Alzheimer's Disease Studies (FCA3DS) funded by the Florida Department of Health's Ed and Ethel Moore Alzheimer's Disease Research Program grant to conduct whole-exome sequencing in African American participants with Alzheimer's disease and control participants. These studies identified genetic variants that may confer risk of Alzheimer's disease in this population.
Dr. Ertekin-Taner's lab is expanding these whole-exome sequencing studies to additional participants and conducting gene expression and plasma biomarker studies in this African American cohort. These studies are expected to yield information on the genetic factors and transcript and protein changes that may serve as potential therapeutic targets or biomarkers in African Americans. The team plans to extend this work to other understudied populations, including Hispanic Americans.
Related publications
- N'Songo A, Carrasquillo MM, Wang X, Burgess JD, Nguyen T, Asmann YW, Serie DJ, Younkin SG, Allen M, Pedraza O, Duara R, Custo MT, Graff-Radford NR, Ertekin-Taner N. African American exome sequencing identifies potential risk variants at Alzheimer disease loci. Neurology Genetics. 2017.
- N'Songo A, Carrasquillo MM, Wang X, Nguyen T, Asmann Y, Younkin SG, Allen M, Duara R, Custo MT, Graff-Radford NR, Ertekin-Taner N. Comprehensive screening for disease risk variants in early-onset Alzheimer's disease genes in African Americans identifies novel PSEN variants. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. 2017.
- Jin SC, Carrasquillo MM, Benitez BA, Skorupa T, Carrell D, Patel D, Lincoln S, Krishnan S, Kachadoorian M, Reitz C, Mayeux R, Wingo TS, Lah JJ, Levey AI, Murrell J, Hendrie H, Foroud T, Graff-Radford NR, Goate AM, Cruchaga C, Ertekin-Taner N. TREM2 is associated with increased risk for Alzheimer's disease in African Americans. Molecular Neurodegeneration. 2015.