$4.8M Grant Supports Study of Genetics in Asian Populations

Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have received a $4.8 million grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to study the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease in people of Asian ancestry.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia among seniors, impacting more than 6.5 million people in the US and Canada combined. The prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease is projected to increase significantly in the coming years as the elderly populations in these countries continue to grow.

Despite many clinical trials and research studies, the cause of Alzheimer’s is still unknown, and researchers have had little success in testing therapeutic targets to stop or slow the disease process over the last two decades. Investigators continue to look for answers to the disease’s origin by conducting genetic studies, as well as studies about lifestyle and other factors.

There is evidence that susceptibility to diseases may differ by ethnicity, and small genetic studies indicate that Asians may have a distinct set of genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s. However, studies of Alzheimer’s – and other complex diseases – typically recruit mostly populations of European ancestry.

The project, called the Asian Cohort for Alzheimer’s Disease (ACAD), aims to enroll a population of at least 5,000 participants of Asian ancestry in the US and Canada. Researchers believe that this will be a large enough sample to enable the discovery of new gene variants related to Alzheimer’s risk.

ACAD will recruit patients over age 60 who have evidence of cognitive impairment, as well as age- and sex-matched controls who have no cognitive complaints. Researchers will compare DNA, medical histories, and lifestyle factors of these two groups for clues to risks for dementia, and will track participants’ memory and cognitive test scores.

Researchers expect that this effort will help broaden the diversity of Alzheimer’s research, and genetics research in general.

“This is an extremely important project. There is currently a major bias towards inclusion of people of European ancestry in human genetics studies,” said Sarah Tishkoff, PhD, professor of genetics and biology and ACAD scientific advisory board member.

“The Asian Cohort for Alzheimer’s Disease study is critically important for making sure that a more diverse set of ethnic groups, with a focus on Asian Americans and Canadians, will benefit from human genetics research studies to understand risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and to develop diagnostics and therapeutics that are move effective in all ethnic groups.”

During the two-year pilot period covered by the initial funding, researchers will show the potential of the wider project by first enrolling and beginning studies of a smaller cohort of ethnic Chinese participants at a number of academic centers in the US and Canada.

ACAD will also conduct pilot studies for recruiting Korean and Vietnamese Americans to validate recruitment strategies and assessment procedures to prepare for the full project. ACAD researchers have invested in the enrollment team’s critical role in engaging directly with local ethnic Asian communities and their senior populations to develop long-term trust and thereby enhance the recruitment effort.

“We really have an exceptionally cross-collaborative team for this project, which may be the key to our ultimate aim is to assemble a large-enough cohort that we can get a clear picture of the genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease among Asian-Americans and Asian-Canadians,” said Li-San Wang, PhD, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

“Having a better understanding of these risk factors will inform treatment and other care-related decisions, especially when effective treatments are available, and should also help us make more accurate models of the lifetime Alzheimer’s risk in these fast-growing segments of the aging population.”