Is Alzheimer's inherited?

Can Alzheimer's run through your family? Is it an autosomal dominant or autosomal recessive disease?

According to a National Institute of Health document "Alzheimers Disease: Unraveling the Mystery", researchers have discovered that some cases of one type of Alzheimer's early onset AD, there seems to be a genetic link as this form runs in families. Apparently, scientists working for the NIH discovered mutations on chromosomes 21, 14, and 1 that results in production of an abnormal amyloid precursor protein (APP), an abnormal protein known as presenilin 1, and a second abnormal protein presenilin 2 respectively. "Even if only one of these genes inherited from a parent contains a mutation, the person will almost inevitably develop early onset AD. This means that in these families, children have about a 50-50 chance of developing the disease if one of the parents has it. Early-onset AD is rare and these gene mutations do not play a role in the more common late-onset AD, but as of 2002, when the NIH released this document, genetics was thought to at least partly predispose AD. Please forgive me, but I'm not very good at determining whether a disease is autosomal dominant, or recessive. Autosomes are the genes on chromosomes not involved with determining sex of the individual. Recessive traits are those traits that are coded for in the DNA, but that may or may not be expressed. Dominant traits will be expressed by the phenotype if they are present inn the genotype. *** If anyone has a more accurate or clearer understanding of inheritance, please clarify.*** I hope that the info I provided from the NIH was useful. You may find http://www.alzheimers.org has the info you seek.

Can't remember.

omm what was I going to say

Alzheimers can run in your family. But most people who have it don't have any relatives who have had it.

sounds like you may know more about it than i do, but i recently learned some things... there is a heredity factor; a predictive blood test is expected to come out soon, like within a couple years; a preventive method is expected to be developed within 6 to 8 years.

Jonathan Haines, Ph.D., and colleagues plan to focus their attention on a small region of chromosome 10 that they believe may harbor genetic changes that increase the risk for Alzheimer's disease. Recently they found 18 different genes that are either over- or under-activated in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. Genetic changes in any one of these genes could, in theory, predispose people to the disease.

If they fail to find any simple genetic changes that correlate with Alzheimer's disease, they will then perform more detailed analysis by searching for more complex genetic rearrangements, deletions or changes to the genetic code in the vicinity of these genes. Their work could help identify the genetic changes on chromosome 10 that may be responsible for increasing the risk for Alzheimer's.