The Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Val66Met Polymorphism and Prediction of Neural Risk for Alzheimer Disease

Abstract

The BDNF gene confers risk in an age-dependent manner on the brain structures and cognitive functions that are consistent with the neural circuitry vulnerable in the earliest stages of AD. Our novel findings provide convergent evidence in vivo for a BDNF genetic mechanism of susceptibility in an intermediate phenotype related to AD.