The heritability of amyloid burden in older adults: the Older Australian Twins Study

R Koncz; A Thalamuthu; W Wen; VS Catts; V Dore; T Lee; KA Mather; MJ Slavin; EA Wegner; J Jiang; JN Trollor; D Ames; VL Villemagne; CC Rowe; PS Sachdev

Journal article

The heritability of amyloid burden in older adults: the Older Australian Twins Study

R Koncz, A Thalamuthu, W Wen, VS Catts, V Dore, T Lee, KA Mather, MJ Slavin, EA Wegner, J Jiang, JN Trollor, D Ames, VL Villemagne, CC Rowe, PS Sachdev

Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry | Published : 2022

DOI: 10.1136/jnnp-2021-326677

Abstract

Objective To determine the proportional genetic contribution to the variability of cerebral β-amyloid load in older adults using the classic twin design. Methods Participants (n=206) comprising 61 monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs (68 (55.74%) females; mean age (SD): 71.98 (6.43) years), and 42 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs (56 (66.67%) females; mean age: 71.14 (5.15) years) were drawn from the Older Australian Twins Study. Participants underwent detailed clinical and neuropsychological evaluations, as well as MRI, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and amyloid PET scans. Fifty-eight participants (17 MZ pairs, 12 DZ pairs) had PET scans with 11Carbon-Pittsburgh Compound B, and 148 participants (44 MZ pair..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

David Ames Author

Victor Villemagne Author

Christopher Rowe Author

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Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

The OATS study has been funded by a National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and Australian Research Council (ARC) Strategic Award Grant of the Ageing Well, Ageing Productively Programme (ID No. 401162); NHMRC Project Grants (ID 1045325 and 1085606); and NHMRC Programme Grants (ID No. 568 969 and 1093083). DNA was extracted by Genetic Repositories Australia, which was funded by the NHMRC Enabling Grant 401 184. OATS genotyping was partly funded by a Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Flagship Collaboration Fund Grant. This research was facilitated through Twins Research Australia, a national resource in part supported by a Centre for Research Excellence Grant (ID: 1079102) from the National Health and Medical Research Council.