TUESDAY, June 12 (HealthDay News) -- A common genetic risk
factor for Alzheimer's disease disrupts brain function in
healthy older women but has little effect in men, a new study
has People with two copies (one from each parent) of the ApoE4
gene variant are at extremely high risk for Alzheimer's. Only 2
percent of people have two copies of the variant, while about 15
percent of people carry a single copy. In this study of 91
healthy older people, researchers looked at those with a single
copy of the ApoE4 variant and found that women, but not men,
exhibited two characteristics that have been linked to The women
had a signature change in their brain activity and elevated
levels of a protein called tau in their cerebrospinal The study,
published June 13 in the Journal of Neuroscience, is the first
to identify this gender difference in healthy older adults with
one copy of the ApoE4 variants, according to a Stanford
University news release. The findings suggest that men who carry
a single copy of the gene varia