A gene-brain-cognition pathway for the effect of an Alzheimer׳s risk gene on working memory in young adults.

ABSTRACT: Identifying pathways by which genetic Alzheimer׳s disease (AD) risk factors exert neurocognitive effects in young adults are essential for the effort to develop early interventions to forestall or prevent AD onset. Here, in a brain-imaging cohort of 59 young adults, we investigated effects of a variant within the clusterin (CLU) gene on working memory function and gray matter volume in cortical areas that support working memory. In addition, we investigated the extent to which effects of CLU genotype on working memory were independent of variation in the strongest AD risk factor gene apolipoprotein E (APOE). CLU is among the strongest genetic AD risk factors and, though it appears to share AD pathogenesis-related features with, APOE, it has been far less well studied. CLU genotype was asso

SUBMITTER: Stevens BW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4337824 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature