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Rebecca Voelker

JAMA. 2000;284:1777.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

An Arab community living in northern Israel has provided researchers with the first evidence that a recessive gene may be involved in the development of Alzheimer disease (AD).

In the September 12 issue of Neurology, researchers reported on a study of 821 elderly Arab residents in the rural Wadi Ara community. Of those aged 85 years and older, 61% had AD. In other populations, about 40% of people the same age have the illness. Similarly, 20% of those older than 65 years in Wadi Ara had AD vs about 10% in other populations.

An established link with AD, the apolipoprotein E4 gene variant, was present in very low levels in the Wadi Ara residents, the researchers reported. Considering the high rate of AD in Wadi Ara and a high rate of intermarriage among close relatives—reportedly 44% of all Arab marriages in Israel are consanguineous (Am J . . . [Full Text of this Article]