Department of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Alzheimer's DNA Bank » Purpose
To enroll families with Alzheimer's patients here in Texas into the DNA bank. To enroll, the family must complete a detailed family history form, sign medical release forms to enable us to obtain medical information on the patient, and sign consent forms indicating their willingness to participate in the study. Then we draw two tubes of blood on each participant. The medical records allow us to confirm the diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's disease on the patients, according to NINCDS criteria. This includes a detailed medical history indicating the progression of the disease, appropriate blood work to rule out other causes of dementia, and evidence of cerebral atrophy on CT or MRI. Those with vascular dementia or possible Alzheimer's disease are not included in our genetic studies.
We are primarily interested in identifying the gene involved in late onset Alzheimer's disease. The APOE4 allele on chromosome 19 has been identified as a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. Indeed 45% of our patients have this APOE4 allele. We have also identified another risk factor for Alzheimer's disease which is a restriction site in the gene for APOCI. APOCI is downstream from APOE on chromosome 19 and the two genes are closely linked. We are also involved in a genome screening project which means that we are screening markers on each chromosome to identify other markers associated with the disease.
