Why Do Humans Still Have a Gene That Increases the Risk of Alzheimer's?
Despite its dangers, the gene appears to protect the brain from parasites.
When the former nurse Jamie Tyrone learned that she carried two copies of a gene called ApoE4, she “lost hope and direction,” and her “days were filled with fear, anxiety and sadness.” It meant that as she got older, she would likely develop Alzheimer’s disease, as her father had done before her.
The apoliprotein E gene, or , comes in three forms—E2, E3, and E4. The last one is the problem. People who carry one copy have of Alzheimer’s than those with none. And those with two copies, will develop the disease by the time they are 85. The risk is so large that some people who get their genomes analyzed () deliberately decide to redact their sequence. They’d rather not know.
