According to a new research, only a small proportion of dementia cases are thought to be inherited, the cause of which is still unknown.
In a study, published in the journal Nature Communications, a team of researchers at the University of Cambridge said that they may have found an explanation for the spontaneous errors in our DNA which arise as cells divide and reproduce.
The findings suggest that for many people with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, the roots of their condition will trace back to their time as an embryo developing in the womb.
In common neurodegenerative diseases, toxic proteins build up in the brain, destroying brain cells and damaging brain regions, leading to symptoms including personality changes, memory loss and loss of control. Only around one in twenty patients have a family history, where genetic variants inherited from one or both parents contributes to disease risk. The cause of the majority of cases – which are thought to affect as many as one in ten people in the developed world – has remained a mystery.
