Lifeline

For a couple of decades, three genes have been known to be causal for the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Now, researchers can add a fourth gene to the list: SORL1. This gene was already found to be defective in 3% of early-onset Alzheimer cases in humans. Though, the causality was not yet established. Using state-of-the-art CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing techniques on cloned minipigs, researchers have defined that SORL1 is a gene which can single handedly cause Alzheimer’s disease. So there is no need for the other three Alzheimer genes to be defective. As pigs are quite similar to humans, they are a great animal model, which can bridge the gap between research and pharmaceuticals. With this newfound knowledge, biomarkers during early stages of Alzheimer's can be found. Pharmacologists can start experimenting on the pigs to find pharmaceuticals early on in the disease's trajectory. Possibly even before the brain damage is irreversible. Even though there is still a long way to go, the finding in these pigs gives great perspective for the future treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.