UK research advances development of gene therapy for Alzheimer's disease.

The University of Bristol in the UK recently announced that its researchers have made important progress in the development of gene therapy for Alzheimer's disease, which is expected to provide new ideas for preventing or delaying this disease. According to the university, the research team used blood immune cells from people with Alzheimer's disease who carry the APOE4 gene. APOE4 is currently one of the important genetic risk factors known to be associated with Alzheimer's disease, especially late-onset Alzheimer's disease. However, carrying APOE4 does not mean that a person will definitely develop Alzheimer's disease. In immune cells from patients, the team successfully converted the APOE4 gene, which is associated with high Alzheimer's disease risk, into the lower-risk APOE3 gene. By targeting the APOE4 gene, the researchers hope to prevent or delay the progression of Alzheimer's disease in people carrying the APOE4 gene. The results also showed that the method used by the team had little effect on the rest of the genes in the cells, suggesting that the method may be relatively safe. Kevin Kemp, head of the research team and associate professor at the University of Bristol's School of Psychological Science and Neuroscience, said that this research is still at an early stage, and the team hopes that by targeting the important risk factor APOE4, it will ultimately develop new treatments for Alzheimer's disease.