Alz Forum, the dynamic online scientific knowledge base that reports on the latest Alzheimer’s scientific research, has a good article on the recent discovery by Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Researcher Sam Gandy on a link between Alzheimer’s and diabetes, arising from the Alzheimer’s Genome Project which identified new Alzheimer’s gene candidates.

Madolyn Bowman Rogers writes:

Two pernicious disorders of late life, Alzheimer disease and diabetes, may be tied together by a common connection with a pathway that sorts and trafficks proteins such as APP within cells, new research suggests. In the September 29 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers led by Sam Gandy at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City report that the sorting protein SorCS1 reduces Aβ generation when overexpressed, and conversely is associated with higher levels of Aβ in female mice when underexpressed. SorCS1 has been genetically linked to both diabetes and AD. The convergence of these two diseases on SorCS1 may help explain why having diabetes is a risk factor for contracting Alzheimer’s. The results also suggest a potential new pathway for therapeutic intervention into both disorders.

This paper is important, said Thomas Willnow of the Max-Delbrueck-Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, Germany, as it adds pieces to help solve the puzzle of the intracellular trafficking of APP. The data also fit well with previous reports finding that trafficking pathways may be altered in AD, Willnow said. “I think it all adds up and points to a very important aspect of [AD] pathology.”

Read the full article “APP Sorting Protein May Link Alzheimer’s and Diabetes” >

We congratulate Dr. Gandy on this important work and are proud to have helped support it!