Can knowing you and your family may get Alzheimer’s ever be positive?
By Giulia Rhodes,
The Guardian
| 09. 21. 2015
Untitled Document
At the University of Washington’s School of Medicine there is a computer database that states with certainty – albeit heavily encrypted – whether or not Sophie Leggett will develop a form of genetically inherited early onset Alzheimer’s disease. But she has chosen not to find out what it says.
A blood test is available to adult children and siblings of those who develop Alzheimer’s at a young age and have a family history of the disease. It identifies whether they carry one of the three faulty genes known to cause familial early onset Alzheimer’s, presenilin 1 (the mutation affecting Leggett’s family), presenilin 2 and amyloid precursor protein. All result in the overproduction of amyloid, a protein that builds up into the plaques on the brain which are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s.
Now 39, Leggett saw her mother and aunt develop familial early onset Alzheimer’s in their early 40s – as had their father. All died in their 50s. There is a one-in-two chance that Leggett has inherited the gene mutation.
“I focus on the 50% chance that...
Related Articles
By Yelena Biberman and Jonathan D. Moreno, Bioethics Forum | 04.16.2024
A quiet biological revolution in warfare is underway. The genome is emerging as a new domain of conflict. The level of destruction that only nuclear weapons could previously achieve is fast becoming as accessible as a cyberattack.
Now for the...
By Jorge Barrera and Rachel Houlihan, CBC | 04.09.2024
A Canadian DNA laboratory knowingly delivered prenatal paternity test results that routinely identified the wrong biological fathers — ruling out the real dads — and left a trail of shattered lives around the globe, a CBC News investigation has found...
By Timnit Gebru and Émile P. Torres, First Monday | 04.14.2024
The stated goal of many organizations in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) is to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), an imagined system with more intelligence than anything we have ever seen. Without seriously questioning whether such a system can...
By Carey Gillan, UnSpun | 03.18.2024
A Mexican standoff with the United States turned into a Mexican smack-down this month with the release of Mexico’s formal rebuttal to US efforts to overturn limits Mexico has ordered on the use of genetically modified (GM) corn and the...