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My former neurology teacher was working on finding a genetic model that could predict Alzheimer's. They said that work was going well. However they were also fi

My former neurology teacher was working on finding a genetic model that could predict Alzheimer's. They said that work was going well. However they were also finding strong evidence for these infection models. which seems to contradict their work. The disease couldn't be both hereditary and infectious. Their answer were that possible we were looking at at least two different diseases that just so happened to attack the same neurons, and hence produce the same symptoms.

EamonnMR 8y ago
Well actually, it could be. Viral infections can cause mutations which lead to other diseases down the line, HPV causing cancer being the most famous. It could also, potentially, be heritable. Or the risk is heritable but the infection actually triggers the disease.
amelius 8y ago
> The disease couldn't be both hereditary and infectious. Why not? Why couldn't "proneness to infection" be hereditary, and the actual infection completing the disease mechanism?
- gameswithgo 8y ago
  or the way you respond to the infection could be genetic.
- choeger 8y ago
  You would expect your models to distinguish the root cause. In your example their are either many infected that do not show symptoms or many related people that don't. In any case one of the models should be off.