New Mutations From Fathers Also Cause Much Higher Risk of Alzheimer's in Offspring

Elderly persons with elderly fathers – do they face additional risks?
KAREN RITCHIE a1a1 French National Institute of Medical Research (INSERM), Research Unit U888 “Nervous System Pathologies,” La Colombière Hospital, Montpellier, France Email: Ritchie@montp.inserm.fr
Article author query
ritchie k [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
Psychogeriatric research has explored many factors likely to influence our mental health in later life, but one which has received surprisingly little attention given the current interest in genetic determinants has been paternal age.


1998From: New Scientist People With Alzheimer's May Have Their Fathers To Thank
CHILDREN born to older fathers have a higher risk of eventually developing Alzheimer's disease, according to a new retrospective study.
Older mothers are more likely to give birth to babies with Down's syndrome, and people with Down's develop Alzheimer's disease earlier and more often than others. Intrigued by the association between these diseases, Lars Bertram of the Technical University of Munich and his colleagues wondered if parental age also plays a more direct role in Alzheimer's.
The researchers studied 206 patients with Alzheimer's disease. Susceptibility to the disease is associated with certain major genes, so their first step was to try to establish each person's inherited risk. To do this they found out the incidence of Alzheimer's in each patient's family.
Then they looked at the groups of patients at each extreme-comparing those least likely to have the disease genes with those most likely to have them-hoping to find an extra risk factor among the first group to explain why they had Alzheimer's.
Those patients who were least likely to have inherited a major disease gene had fathers who were significantly older than fathers of the second group and fathers of people of the same age who did not have Alzheimer's, the researchers report in the current issue of the journal Neurogenetics (vol 1, p 277).
Fathers of this low-probability group had been on average 35á7 years old when their child was born, whereas the fathers of patients who were most likely to have a major disease gene had only been 31á3 years old at the birth of their child.
As people age, researchers suspect, damage builds up in their DNA and gets passed on to the child. "There's an accumulation of environmental factors which somehow alter the genome of the father," says Bertram.
"Their finding is extremely interesting,"says Simon Lovestone, an Alzheimer's disease specialist at the Institute of Psychiatry in London.
Author: Alison Motluk
NEW SCIENTIST issue 19th September 1998
PLEASE MENTION NEW SCIENTIST IF YOU USE THIS ARTICLE

WHAT IF PEOPLE KNEW THAT FATHERING BABIES PAST THE AGE OF 34 CAUSES DE NOVO AUTISM, SCHIZOPHRENIA, CANCERS, DIABETES, MS, LUPUS, ALZHEIMER'S, FIBRO

CSHL Trustee David Rubenstein
and Liz Watson




Hedge fund manager Bruce Kovner, Dr. Bruce Stillman, David Koch

Honoree Bob Wright, Lonnie Ali, Muhammad Ali, Suzanne Wright,
Lab President Dr. Bruce Stillman, Dr. James Watson

November 9, 2006
CSHL RAISES $2.5 MILLION AT INAUGURAL DOUBLE HELIX MEDALS EVENT & LAUNCHES $200 MILLION CAPITAL CAMPAIGN


EFFORT CITED AT INAUGURAL DOUBLE HELIX MEDALS DINNER HONORING MUHAMMAD ALI, BOB AND SUZANNE WRIGHT, PHILLIP SHARP


Presenters include Meredith Vieira, Phil Donahue, Deborah Norville, Dr. James D. Watson



Dr. James Watson Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), the renowned institution where Nobel laureate Dr. James D. Watson gave the first public presentation of the discovery he and fellow scientist Dr. Francis Crick made of the structure of DNA, is launching a $200 million capital campaign to fortify and expand its leadership role in making groundbreaking research discoveries and developing innovative technologies to study the fundamental aspects of human health. The campaign will enable CSHL, home to seven Nobel Prize winners and recently ranked #1 in cited research in molecular biology and genetics by Science Watch, to make substantial increases in laboratory space, create endowed research centers to support innovation and growth, and provide funding to recruit talented scientists.





Bruce Stillman, Evening Presenter "Inside Edition's"
Deborah Norville, Jim Watson, Honoree Dr. Phillip A. Sharp

The campaign was cited at CSHL's inaugural Double Helix Medals Dinner tonight at the Mandarin Oriental New York. The black-tie gala honored boxing legend and humanitarian Muhammad Ali; Bob Wright, chairman and CEO of NBC Universal, and his wife Suzanne; and Nobel laureate Dr. Phillip Sharp of MIT. The double helix refers to the unique structure of DNA molecule, which carries all of life's information. It is central to biological research, and is at the heart of the CSHL's work.




Dr. James Watson Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), the renowned institution where Nobel laureate Dr. James D. Watson gave the first public presentation of the discovery he and fellow scientist Dr. Francis Crick made of the structure of DNA, is launching a $200 million capital campaign to fortify and expand its leadership role in making groundbreaking research discoveries and developing innovative technologies to study the fundamental aspects of human health. The campaign will enable CSHL, home to seven Nobel Prize winners and recently ranked #1 in cited research in molecular biology and genetics by Science Watch, to make substantial increases in laboratory space, create endowed research centers to support innovation and growth, and provide funding to recruit talented scientists.



The campaign was cited at CSHL's inaugural Double Helix Medals Dinner tonight at the Mandarin Oriental New York. The black-tie gala honored boxing legend and humanitarian Muhammad Ali; Bob Wright, chairman and CEO of NBC Universal, and his wife Suzanne; and Nobel laureate Dr. Phillip Sharp of MIT. The double helix refers to the unique structure of DNA molecule, which carries all of life's information. It is central to biological research, and is at the heart of the CSHL's work.



dinner was chaired by Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC Universal Television Group, and his wife Caryn; Thomas Quick, retired vice chairman of Quick & Reilly/Fleet Securities, Inc., and a Trustee of CSHL; David Rubenstein, a CSHL Trustee who is co-founder and managing director of The Carlyle Group, and his wife Alice; and Roy Zuckerberg, a CSHL Trustee and senior director of Goldman Sachs.

Some $2.5 million was raised at the dinner to benefit CSHL's groundbreaking biomedical research, innovative technologies and educational initiatives seeking to understand and identify therapeutic approaches and cures for devastating diseases such as cancer, autism, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, among others.


“Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has long been recognized for its excellence in research in the biological and biomedical sciences,” said Dr. Bruce Stillman, president. “Our $200 million capital campaign will enable us to expand our stellar research and continue to teach the next generation of scientists.”


Added Dr. Watson: “Never before has biology and medicine had the capacity to move so rapidly. I excitingly look forward to keeping Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in its long valued leadership role.”


CSHL has already raised $130 million in the silent phase of the capital campaign. It is customary for institutions to have about one-third to one-half of the campaign completed before making a public announcement.


Major capital and endowment gifts include: $20 million from New York State for campus construction; $15 million from the Starr Foundation, which will go toward cancer genetics; $10 million from the DeMatteis Family, whose name will appear on a building for human genetics research; $10 million from Donald Everett Axinn for research into cognitive disorders; and $10 million from David H. Koch for biomathematics research.



“Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's work in determining the causes of diseases like cancer through the study of genetics is second to none,” said David H. Koch, a former trustee of the Laboratory who has been a generous supporter of biomathematics at the Laboratory. “I am proud to have my name affiliated with an institution that has made, and will continue to make, important discoveries in the treatment of genetic diseases through outstanding biomedical research.”


“It gives me a great sense of pride to help Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory expand its facilities for groundbreaking research in Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, autism and schizophrenia,” said Donald Everett Axinn, who has made a contribution toward research on cognitive disorders.

CNVs PROBABLY HAVE TO DO WITH IN THE SHUFFLING OF GENETIC MATERIAL THAT OCCURS IN THE PRODUCTION OF EGGS AND SPERM

The new understanding will change the way in which scientists search for genes involved in disease.

"Many examples of diseases resulting from changes in copy number are emerging," commented Charles Lee, one of the project's leaders from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, US.


"A recent review lists 17 conditions of the nervous system alone - including Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease - that can result from such copy number changes."
Scientists are not sure why the copy variations emerge, but it probably has something to do with the shuffling of genetic material that occurs in the production of eggs and sperm; the process is prone to errors. As well as aiding the investigation of disease and the development of new drugs, the research will also inform the study of human evolution, which probes genetic variation in modern populations for what it can say about their relationship to ancestral peoples.