Alzheimer’s Gene Screening

Presented by:
Diana Lynn
Nelson Mugarura
Frederick Muluh
Christina Nguyen
Eduardo Ortiz
 Introduction

❖ Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive, devastating

age-related neurodegenerative disorder
❖ AD is the world’s leading cause of dementia
❖ AD mainly presents with memory loss and cognitive
impairments
❖ Genetic testing is being performed by many people to
determine the possibility of suffering from AD
(Hane, Augusta, & Bai, 2018)
 How is Alzheimer’s gene screened?

Advances in genetic testing have made

Alzheimer's gene screening possible by:

❖ Spitting in a cup or
❖ Swabbing the cheek
❖ ApoE4 is the strongest predictor of Alzheimer’s
risk (but not an absolute predictor)
❖ It is not the only deciding factor
(Wong, Seelaar, Melhem, Rozemuller, & van Swieten, 2020).
Ethical issues in Alzheimer’s gene
screening
CR1

APOE 3
ABCA7

APOE 4
PIACALM

CLU
The role of a healthcare practitioner

❖ Educator
❖ Deliverer of Services
❖ Researcher
❖ Consultant
❖ Healer
 Conclusion / Recommendation

❖ Discuss options with the patient

❖ Be honest
❖ Encourage the patient to ask questions
❖ Consult with knowledge and integrity
❖ Evidence-based research and literature still
needed
(Giri et al., 2016)
 References

Edelman, C. L., & Kudzma, E. C. (2018). Health promotion throughout the lifespan. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Health Sciences.

Giri, M., Zhang, M., & Lü, Y. (2016). Genes associated with Alzheimer's disease: An overview and current status. Clinical
interventions in aging, 11, 665–681. doi: https://doi.org/10.2147/CIA.S105769

Hane, F., Augusta, C., & Bai, O. (2018). A hierarchical Bayesian model to predict APOE4 genotype and the age of Alzheimer’s

disease onset. Plos One, 13(7). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0200263

The role of genes in your Alzheimer's risk. (2019, April 19). Retrieved from
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alzheimers-disease/in-depth/alzheimers-genes/art-20046552

Wong, T. H., Seelaar, H., Melhem, S., Rozemuller, A., & J.C. van Swieten (2020). Genetic screening in
early-onset Alzheimer's disease identified three novel presenilin mutations. Neurobiology of Aging, 86, 201-214. doi:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2019.01.015