(Ivanhoe Newswire) ? A University of California Irvine study has found that a gene called TOMM40 appears twice as often in people who develop Alzheimer's disease as it does in those who don't. Alzheimer's, for which there is no cure, is the leading cause of elderly dementia.

Having the harmful form of TOMM40 significantly increases one's susceptibility when other risk factors, such as having a gene called ApoE-4, are present, the new study reports. People who have ApoE-4 are three to eight times more likely to develop Alzheimer's.

"The TOMM40 gene influences the ease with which molecules can get in and out of mitochondria, [which serve as] the energy production center and stress mediator of cells. TOMM40 also processes materials that form amyloid plaque, a hallmark of Alzheimer's," Dr. Steven Potkin, lead author of the study and UCI psychiatry & human behavior professor was quoted as saying.

"With aging, the number and function of mitochondria decreases, accompanied by a parallel increased risk of developing Alzheimer's," he said. "This study points to the use of mitochondrial-based therapies for treating the disease."

Supporting the UCI discovery is research presented recently at the International Conference on Alzheimer's disease in Vienna, Austria. Duke University scientists found that patients with TOMM40 developed Alzheimer's an average of seven years earlier than those who did not have the gene.

SOURCE: PLoS One, August 7, 2009

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