Personalized genetic profiles of risk and resilience in Alzheimer’s and vascular diseases

Objective: to identify personalized genetic profiles of risks and resilience to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and vascular diseases in the disease-specific and pleiotropic contexts in prioritized loci leveraging information from the AD-centered pleiotropic meta-analysis planned in this project and previous analyses by our and other research groups, and identify the role of AD risk and other factors in these profiles using ADSP and 13 more studies. Study design: Aim 1 will identify specific and pleiotropic loci for AD and vascular traits from new analyses and the existing publications by: (i) performing pleiotropic genome-wide analysis focused on AD, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and AD risk factors and (ii) identifying promising loci from this analysis and the results of previous analyses by our and other research groups. Aim 2 will dissect heterogeneity leveraging the analysis of molecular signatures defined as differences in linkage disequilibrium patterns in affected and unaffected subjects. Aim 3 will identify personalized genetic profiles of AD-specific and pleiotropic risks and resilience. Aim 4 will leverage biological, bioinformatics, and omics analyses to make sense of statistical inferences. In some cases, we may need to pool several datasets to increase power of the analyses in a mega sample. This will be done by pooling individuals’ records for genotypes and selected phenotypes described above from different studies. This pooling will not create any additional risks to participants because neither genetic nor phenotypic information for the same individual will increase.
This research is consistent with data use restrictions for ADSP. We will not conduct non-genetic research, will not investigate individual pedigree structures, population origins, ancestry, individual participant genotypes, perceptions of racial/ethnic identity, variables that could be considered as stigmatizing an individual or group, or issues such as non-maternity. The research is designed to protect data confidentiality and follow local and institutional policies and procedures for data handling. The results of this research will be broadly shared with the scientific community.

Increasing population of the elderly individuals worldwide raises serious concerns about burden of geriatric conditions in future, especially Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular diseases, and other common aging-related diseases. These diseases can cluster in families suggesting that they can have genetic origin. Understanding their genetic origin could lead to breakthrough in preventing or curing such diseases. Despite continuing efforts, understanding their genetic basis remains very limited. Particular problem is to better understand genetic basis of Alzheimer’s disease, its relationship to other aging-related diseases, and identify genetic variants which could help protect against such diseases. This project focuses on identifying personalized genetic profiles of risk and resilience to AD and vascular diseases. This research will facilitate the development of interventional strategies aiming to promote healthy aging.