Publications by authors named "Grenier-Boley B"

Article Synopsis
  • A study was conducted to investigate the X-chromosome's role in Alzheimer's Disease (AD), which had been overlooked in previous genome-wide association studies.
  • The research included 115,841 AD cases and 613,671 controls, considering different X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) states in females.
  • While no strong genetic risk factors for AD were found on the X-chromosome, seven significant loci were identified, suggesting areas for future research.
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Background And Objectives: Large-scale genome-wide studies of chronic hydrocephalus have been lacking. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH).

Methods: We used a case-control study design implementing FinnGen data containing 473,691 Finns with genotypes and nationwide health records.

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  • Scientists studied over 176,000 people to see how certain genes might protect against Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD).
  • They found that specific types of a gene called HLA could help reduce the risk of these diseases and lower harmful proteins in the brain.
  • This suggests that our immune system might help protect us from PD and AD, which could lead to new treatments in the future.
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  • An estimated 40% of dementia cases might be preventable by altering 12 specific risk factors throughout a person's life, although there's insufficient evidence for many of them.
  • The study aims to identify causal relationships between modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) to encourage new treatment options and better prevention strategies.
  • Researchers analyzed data from over 39,000 AD patients and 401,000 controls, finding that higher genetically determined levels of HDL cholesterol and systolic blood pressure were linked to an increased risk of developing AD.
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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is considered to have a large genetic component. Our knowledge of this component has progressed over the last 10 years, thanks notably to the advent of genome-wide association studies and the establishment of large consortia that make it possible to analyze hundreds of thousands of cases and controls. The characterization of dozens of chromosomal regions associated with the risk of developing AD and (in some loci) the causal genes responsible for the observed disease signal has confirmed the involvement of major pathophysiological pathways (such as amyloid precursor protein metabolism) and opened up new perspectives (such as the central role of microglia and inflammation).

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  • Researchers developed a polygenic risk score (PRSAβ42) to assess the likelihood of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), while also exploring how cognitive reserve (CR), measured by years of education, affects this risk.
  • In a study involving 618 cognitively normal individuals over an average of nearly 3 years, they used COX models to analyze the relationship between PRSAβ42, CR, and the incidence of AD/aMCI.
  • Findings indicated that higher PRSAβ42 correlated with increased risk of AD/aMCI, while greater CR was associated with reduced risk, highlighting a significant interaction where high CR offered substantial protection against AD/aMCI particularly among
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Morphological alterations of the endosomal compartment have been widely described in post-mortem brains from Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and subjects with Down syndrome (DS) who are at high risk for AD. Immunostaining with antibodies against endosomal markers such as Early Endosome Antigen 1 (EEA1) revealed increased size of EEA1-positive puncta. In DS, peripheral cells such as peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and fibroblasts, share similar phenotype even in the absence of AD.

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  • Numerous studies highlight the significance of the IL-6 pathway in the development of frailty, yet the direct causal relationship remains unclear.
  • This research utilized genetic variants linked to decreased IL-6 signaling as proxies to study their impact on frailty in 11,171 participants from the HELIAD study.
  • Findings suggest that lower IL-6 signaling genetically corresponds to a reduced risk of frailty, indicating a potential causal role of IL-6 in the condition.
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Cancer genetics has to date focused on epithelial malignancies, identifying multiple histotype-specific pathways underlying cancer susceptibility. Sarcomas are rare malignancies predominantly derived from embryonic mesoderm. To identify pathways specific to mesenchymal cancers, we performed whole-genome germline sequencing on 1644 sporadic cases and 3205 matched healthy elderly controls.

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Alzheimer's disease (AD), the leading cause of dementia, has an estimated heritability of approximately 70%. The genetic component of AD has been mainly assessed using genome-wide association studies, which do not capture the risk contributed by rare variants. Here, we compared the gene-based burden of rare damaging variants in exome sequencing data from 32,558 individuals-16,036 AD cases and 16,522 controls.

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  • - The study investigated how vascular risk factors and genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease affect cognitive function in people aged 65 and older in Greece, aiming to find preventive strategies for dementia.
  • - Researchers created a vascular burden score (VBS) and a polygenic risk score (PRS) to assess the influence of these factors on cognitive performance and dementia odds, analyzing data from 1,172 older adults.
  • - Results indicated that both the VBS and PRS were linked to poorer cognitive performance and increased dementia risk, with no interaction between the two, suggesting they independently contribute to cognitive decline.
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  • Amyloid-beta 42 (Aβ42) and phosphorylated tau (pTau) levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) offer better insight into Alzheimer's disease (AD) than just clinical diagnosis.
  • The European Alzheimer & Dementia Biobank (EADB) analyzed data from 31 cohorts with over 13,000 individuals, identifying new genetic associations such as CR1 for Aβ42 and BIN1 for pTau, alongside novel associations with GMNC and C16orf95.
  • Analysis of all AD risk loci revealed four biological categories linked to Aβ42 and pTau, suggesting multiple pathways in AD's development, with further studies indicating GMNC and C16orf95 also relate to brain ventricular volume.
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  • Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) enhance the prediction of late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) risk beyond what is provided by the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene, but they haven't been used much to find genetic factors that offer resilience against the disease.
  • The study aimed to identify genetic variants that confer resilience in two groups: unaffected individuals with high PRSs for LOAD and unaffected carriers of the APOE-ε4 variant also with high PRSs.
  • The researchers employed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to create polygenic resilience scores, successfully replicating two of them across eight studies, suggesting that certain common genetic variants can help mitigate the risk of developing LOAD despite high genetic predisposition.
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Article Synopsis
  • The APOE ε2 and ε4 alleles are well-known genetic variants linked to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), but the specific roles of apoE protein and rare genetic variants in AD risk are not fully understood.
  • The study aims to find connections between rare missense variants in the APOE gene and the risk of developing AD.
  • It involved analyzing a large sample of participants across multiple cohorts, including a significant number with and without AD, to assess the relationship between these variants and AD risk through established statistical methods.
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Background And Objectives: Brain amyloid deposition, a major risk factor for Alzheimer disease (AD), is currently estimated by measuring CSF or plasma amyloid peptide levels or by PET imaging. Assessing genetic risks relating to amyloid deposition before any accumulation has occurred would allow for earlier intervention in persons at increased risk for developing AD. Previous work linking amyloid burden and genetic risk relied almost exclusively on , a major AD genetic risk factor.

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Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis.

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Background: Frailty is a complex geriatric syndrome arising from a combination of genetic and environmental factors and is associated with adverse health outcomes and mortality. A recent study reported an association between variants of the 9p21-23 locus, associated with a number of age-related disorders, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), and frailty. Frailty has been associated with increased risk of developing AD and it has been proposed that frailty burden may modify AD clinical presentation.

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  • A study examined how the polygenic risk score (PRS) for Parkinson's disease (PD) relates to the early signs of the disease in older adults.
  • Researchers analyzed data from 1,120 community-dwelling individuals over 65 years old to see if higher PRS correlated with a greater likelihood of having prodromal PD—a stage before full PD symptoms appear.
  • Findings revealed that increased PRS was associated with a higher risk of prodromal PD and specifically linked to cognitive deficits, making this the first population-based research on this topic.
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  • The text discusses a eukaryotic parasite that forms dormant cysts in the brains of healthy individuals, posing potential complications due to its long-term impact on nervous tissue.
  • Currently, no drugs exist to eliminate these latent cysts, leaving the consequences of prolonged neuronal infection unclear.
  • A new model has been created to study this parasite's differentiation and the response of brain cells, revealing significant disruptions in neuronal pathways, particularly in synapse signaling, which could have serious implications for brain function.
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Genetic discoveries of Alzheimer's disease are the drivers of our understanding, and together with polygenetic risk stratification can contribute towards planning of feasible and efficient preventive and curative clinical trials. We first perform a large genetic association study by merging all available case-control datasets and by-proxy study results (discovery n = 409,435 and validation size n = 58,190). Here, we add six variants associated with Alzheimer's disease risk (near APP, CHRNE, PRKD3/NDUFAF7, PLCG2 and two exonic variants in the SHARPIN gene).

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Introduction: There is increasing interest in plasma amyloid beta (Aβ) as an endophenotype of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Identifying the genetic determinants of plasma Aβ levels may elucidate important biological processes that determine plasma Aβ measures.

Methods: We included 12,369 non-demented participants from eight population-based studies.

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Article Synopsis
  • Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading type of dementia, affecting 35 million people globally, with the APOE ε4 allele significantly increasing the risk of late-onset AD.
  • The ADAPTED consortium conducted a comprehensive analysis using various OMICS technologies to explore the effects of APOE on AD, identifying relevant genes and pathways both influenced by and independent of APOE.
  • The study discovered a set of biomarkers that display contrasting profiles in plasma and brain for different AD cases, which could help develop blood tests for the disease, highlighting the effectiveness of integrating multiple OMICS data for better understanding AD.
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Although APP metabolism is being intensively investigated, a large fraction of its modulators is yet to be characterized. In this context, we combined two genome-wide high-content screenings to assess the functional impact of miRNAs and genes on APP metabolism and the signaling pathways involved. This approach highlighted the involvement of FERMT2 (or Kindlin-2), a genetic risk factor of Alzheimer's disease (AD), as a potential key modulator of axon guidance, a neuronal process that depends on the regulation of APP metabolism.

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