World Alzheimer Epidemiology: The Middle East?

[J11]

https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/mid ... e-of-death

Screenshot_2021-01-23 ALZHEIMERS DEMENTIA MIDDLE EAST CAUSE OF DEATH.png

[J11]

I found this figure quite surprising. The Middle East has 8 of the top ten affected Alzheimer's nations in the world? See Above! Has this been age standardized? Some of these nations have embraced population scale genome sequencing. It would perhaps make a great deal of sense if they were to consider a pan-Middle Eastern AD full genome project. This has not been done anywhere in the world up till to scale. At ~~1 million genomes the genetic architecture of Alzheimer's unlock. It has to make sense to step forward with $300 million to do this. As many of those on forum recognize-- learning that you are epsilon 44 is not comforting, though living your life in ignorance of this would be worse. It would just pop out of nowhere one day and you would be totally unprepared. It is possible that the Middle East has their own variants that have not been found elsewhere. We also know that there is a substantial amount of AD genetics that have yet to have been found.

Israel (unsurprising given the substantial long term selection effects) and Kuwait are noted above for being low risk AD nations. The only notable high-risk nation from Europe was Finland. There were also quite a few high-risk nations noted in the Indo-China region including Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, etc., along with several low risk nations such as Singapore, Krygyzstan and The Philippines. Having a good epidemiological understanding could be helpful in developing clues about genetics, possible natural treatments etc..

[J11]

Screenshot_2021-01-23 ALZHEIMERS DEMENTIA DEATH RATE BY COUNTRY.png

[J11]

Yeah! There it is as an age-standardized global map.

The Middle East does have a substantial burden of disease. Directly addressing this risk with population scale GWAS would make a great deal of sense. It might be sensible to think of this as a regional development strategy. Once the genetics were known then simply selecting against the risk might allow the risk to be rapidly reduced in future generations. I realize that it is not easy for people to think in genetic terms, though if you can help guide them to understanding the idea that they will not have to more generations of their families with dementing illness, then this might be a sellable idea. Now that effective treatments are approaching could also help make people to feel more comfortable.

Perhaps even set it up as an internet drop box where people could just upload family member full genomes no questions asked. I am currently migrating to full genome sequencing myself.

Very exciting! I mean if I dump a high quality full genome VCF onto a site would they really say no? The People's Full Genome AD Sequencing Project!! Yea! If no one else has enough bandwidth to make this happen We The People can unlock the AD Genome ourselves! Very exciting. From what I can see using CADD, high risk variants easily pop right to the top of the list. I can already see some high probability variants that are likely to be AD risk; recent research appears to have confirmed my suspicion. As soon as full genome sequencing goes mainstream, these variants could very rapidly be revealed. Even if they could simply tell me the variants that are not a problem that would be a great help.