The man was discovered by an international team of researchers in Colombia. He earns a living by repairing machines.
Initially, the team discovered that the man carried the Paia gene mutation. This is a gene that increases the risk of Alzheimer's dementia Daily Mail (Older brother).
Alzheimer's disease occurs when protein plaques build up in the brain, disrupting activity and destroying nerve cells.
Normally, a man should have Alzheimer's by the age of 40 and will die at about 60. Genetic factors are the most common cause of early onset of Alzheimer's disease and shortened life expectancy.
However, when he was 67 years old, neuroscientists examined his health and discovered something strange. Instead of dying of Alzheimer's, the man's cognitive and intellectual abilities were normal. Neither the patient nor his family found any abnormalities in his memory.
Researchers later discovered that the cause of this strange phenomenon was because he carried a rare gene variant that helped him almost avoid Alzheimer's disease. This gene, called reelin, is likened to "natural immunity" to disease.
In other words, the man was both a carrier of the gene for early-onset Alzheimer's and a gene that confers immunity to the disease. This strange case has been published by researchers in a scientific journal nature medicine.
Thanks to this gene, the man lived to 74 years old with only moderate memory loss. Taking a closer look at his brain, the researchers found that it showed signs of Alzheimer's disease, such as the formation of amyloid plaques and an abnormal accumulation of the TAU protein in the brain. However, the TAU protein accumulates very little in the olfactory cortex, an area important for memory.
This surprised the researchers. They hope this new finding will help open the hope that they can delay or even prevent the progression of Alzheimer's disease.
The first person to be discovered with a gene variant against Alzheimer's disease was Aliria Rosa Piedrahita de Villegas of Colombia. Researchers discovered her in 2019. The gene was named Christchurch. She died in November 11.2020 from cancer, according to Daily Mail.
