Posts in Category ‘Publications

New insights into the role of APOE in multiple sclerosis

Apolipoprotein E (APOE) represents the major genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, but its role in other neuropsychiatric diseases is less well established. In this study, performed in collaboration with researchers from Ruhr University Bochum, we investigated the role of APOE in a transgenic mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS). While our group had shown earlier that genetic variants in APOE do not significantly alter the risk for MS, they do appear to exert a modest effect in mice suffering from an experimental form of MS, highlighting – again – the challenges of translating results from animal models to the human condition. The study was published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation.

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Seven new risk loci for multiple sclerosis found

In a large, international collaborative effort, LIGA researchers Lill and Bertram established seven novel genetic loci as genuine Multiple Sclerosis (MS) risk loci (i.e. LOC100506457, CD28, LPP, ETS1, DLEU1, LPIN3, and IFNGR2). To this end, they undertook an association study on >21,000 MS patients and healthy controls from Europe and Russia in which they evaluated 11 loci for their role in MS susceptibility. The majority of these loci are shared across autoimmune diseases. This study was published in the  Journal of Medical Genetics..

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LIGA researchers spearhead study on TREM2 in neurodegenerative diseases

A sequence variant in the TREM2 gene (R47H) was recently proposed as a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. In a large international effort, LIGA investigators Christina Lill and Lars Bertram coordinated the to-date largest and most conclusive genetic study on the role of TREM2 R47H in all major neurodegenerative diseases. The work was recently published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

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