Researchers at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, have utilized artificial intelligence (AI) to uncover new genetic insights into Alzheimer’s disease.
Using CSIRO’s VariantSpark and BitEpi tools, scientists at the Australian e-Health Center have identified two new genetic variants associated with Alzheimer’s disease and 95 new gene interactions that may modulate the effects of these variants.
Identifying genetic variants can help predict the occurrence, severity, and potential treatments for Alzheimer’s.
However, these variants alone do not account for all Alzheimer’s heritability. Interactions between variants, known as epistasis, are thought to contribute to the onset and expression of the disease.
By analyzing these interactions using BitEpi, researchers can uncover protective gene interactions that explain some of the missing links in Alzheimer’s heritability. Understanding these interactions can lead to earlier identification of at-risk patients and earlier interventions.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, and rates are predicted to double by 2058 due to the growing and aging population.
CSIRO plans to continue applying VariantSpark and BitEpi tools to address various research challenges, including data privacy constraints, by using federated learning to generate machine learning models from siloed data sources without revealing the entire dataset.
If you care about Alzheimer’s, please read studies about the likely cause of Alzheimer’s disease , and new non-drug treatment that could help prevent Alzheimer’s.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about diet that may help prevent Alzheimer’s, and results showing some dementia cases could be prevented by changing these 12 things.
The research findings can be found in Scientific Reports.
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