People with a history of Alzheimer’s disease on their mother’s side or both parents’ sides of the family had higher levels of amyloid plaques in their brains compared to those with fathers who had the disease, according to a study published Monday in JAMA Neurology.
Increased amyloid, a biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease, was also found in those whose fathers had early onset of symptoms. But it wasn’t as high as in people who had higher amyloid on their mothers’ side of the family, the data showed.
Mass General Brigham researchers used amyloid imaging on 4,413 cognitively unimpaired adults who were between 65 and 85.
“Our study found if participants had a family history on their mother’s side, a higher amyloid level was observed,” Hyun-Sik Yang, MD, a neurologist at Mass General Brigham and behavioral neurologist in the Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a senior author, said in a statement.
The authors said their findings show that a person’s maternal versus paternal family history could have a different impact on the risk of amyloid levels in the brain. Participants reported on when memory loss symptoms began in their parents, and if the parents ever had an official diagnosis or autopsy confirmation of the disease.
“Some people decide not to pursue a formal diagnosis and attribute memory loss to age, so we focused on a memory loss and dementia phenotype,” Yang said.
“If your father had early onset symptoms, that is associated with elevated levels in the offspring,” Mabel Seto, PhD, first author and a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Neurology at Brigham, also said in the statement. “However, it doesn’t matter when your mother started developing symptoms — if she did at all, it’s associated with elevated amyloid.”
“It’s also important to note a majority of these participants are non-Hispanic white,” Seto added. “We might not see the same effect in other races and ethnicities.”
