We found that loss-of-function variants in ABCA7 confer risk of Alzheimer's disease in Icelanders (odds ratio (OR) = 2.12, P = 2.2 × 10(-13)) and discovered that the association replicated in study groups from Europe and the United States (combined OR = 2.03, P = 6.8 × 10(-15)).
We observed three new genome-wide significant nonsynonymous variants associated with Alzheimer's disease: a protective variant in PLCG2 (rs72824905: p.Pro522Arg, P = 5.38 × 10<sup>-10</sup>, odds ratio (OR) = 0.68, minor allele frequency (MAF)<sub>cases</sub> = 0.0059, MAF<sub>controls</sub> = 0.0093), a risk variant in ABI3 (rs616338: p.Ser209Phe, P = 4.56 × 10<sup>-10</sup>, OR = 1.43, MAF<sub>cases</sub> = 0.011, MAF<sub>controls</sub> = 0.008), and a new genome-wide significant variant in TREM2 (rs143332484: p.Arg62His, P = 1.55 × 10<sup>-14</sup>, OR = 1.67, MAF<sub>cases</sub> = 0.0143, MAF<sub>controls</sub> = 0.0089), a known susceptibility gene for Alzheimer's disease.
In experiments with cultured HEK293T cells, we show here that GSK3β stabilizes synaptic acetylcholinesterase (AChE-S), a critical component of AD development.
Aging studies in the senescence-accelerated mouse strain (SAM) prone/8 (SAMP8), an animal model of Alzheimer's disease (AD), revealed significantly decreased mRNA and protein expression of AMF and AMFR in the hippocampus.
Thus APOE-epsilon 4 gene dose is a major risk factor for late onset AD and, in these families, homozygosity for APOE-epsilon 4 was virtually sufficient to cause AD by age 80.
To better understand the biological mechanisms underlying the regulation of AD biomarkers, and its relation to AD, we examined the association between 36 selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and AD biomarkers Aβ1-42, t-tau, and p-tau in CSF in a cohort of 672 samples (571 AD patients and 101 controls) collected within 10 European consortium centers.Our results highlighted five genes, APOE, LOC100129500, PVRL2, SNAR-I, and TOMM40, previously described as main players in the regulation of CSF biomarkers levels, further reinforcing a role for these in AD pathogenesis.