Pathway Cross-talks Associated with Sex and Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease

Although women may constitute some 60 percent of all cases of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the United States, we still don’t understand the reasons why. We are using data from a large national biomarker study called the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative to study this issue more systematically. Their initial results suggest that among people with mild cognitive impairment, women may decline at faster rates than men. In addition, their preliminary results also suggest that the presence of amyloid beta and tangle pathology in the brain may have a bigger effect in women than in men. Using sophisticated computational approaches to model how various genes and chemicals interact in the bodies of older people with memory problems, they are doing further analyses to confirm these early findings. Understanding the basis for gender differences will in turn help us develop highly personalized ways to reduce the risk for Alzheimer’s.