Review Article Genetics of Alzheimer’s Disease

Copyright © 2013 Perry G. Ridge et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Alzheimer’s disease is themost common formof dementia and is the only top 10 cause of death in theUnited States that lacks disease-altering treatments. It is a complex disorder with environmental and genetic components.There are twomajor types of Alzheimer’s disease, early onset and the more common late onset. The genetics of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease are largely understood with variants in three different genes leading to disease. In contrast, while several common alleles associated with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, including APOE, have been identified using association studies, the genetics of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease are not fully understood. Here we review the known genetics of early- and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. 1