Gene Variant Exerts Protective Effect Against Memory Decline

Expanding on their previous studies of the cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) gene variant, which they found increases blood levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL, “good” cholesterol), Richard B. Lipton, from Albert Einstein College of Medicine (New York, USA), and colleagues hypothesized that the CETP longevity gene might also be associated with less cognitive decline as people grow older. The team examined data from 523 participants in the Einstein Aging Study, an ongoing study following 523 men and women, ages a70 and over, residing in the Bronx (New York City).  At the beginning of the study, all study subjects were cognitively healthy, and their blood samples were analyzed to determine which CETP gene variant they carried. The subjects were followed for an average of four years and tested annually to assess their rates of cognitive decline, the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and other changes. The team found that those subjects with two copies of the longevity variant of CETP had slower memory decline slashed their risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease by 70% (as compared with subjects who did not carry the gene variant at all).