Prior infections and polymorphism in NECTIN2 gene are synergistically associated with reduced hippocampal volume, a biomarker of neurodegeneration, in older women
Svetlana Ukraintseva, Vladimir Popov, Hongzhe Duan, Arseniy Yashkin, Igor Akushevich, Konstantin Arbeev, Anatoliy Yashin · 2025
Read Prior infections and polymorphism in NECTIN2 gene are synergistically associated with reduced hippocampal volume, a biomarker of neurodegeneration, in older women by Svetlana Ukraintseva, Vladimir Popov, Hongzhe Duan, Arseniy Yashkin, Igor Akushevich, Konstantin Arbeev, Anatoliy Yashin (2025) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-11716135.txt.
Description
Svetlana Ukraintseva and six co-authors link past infections, a gene variant, and shrinkage of the brain's memory center in older women, in this 2025 study. The hippocampus shrinks early in Alzheimer's disease. The gene, NECTIN2, carries a variant that raises Alzheimer's risk and also affects vulnerability to infections.
Using UK Biobank data on 11,765 people, the team related infection history and the variant to hippocampal size measured by MRI at ages sixty-five to eighty. In women carrying the risk variant, past infections came with about two percent smaller hippocampi on both sides, a combined effect larger than either factor alone. Results in men did not reach significance. The authors suggest the variant may deepen infection-related brain harm, and that the sex gap deserves study. They frame the work as a hypothesis for laboratory follow-up.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Svetlana Ukraintseva, Vladimir Popov, Hongzhe Duan, Arseniy Yashkin, Igor Akushevich, Konstantin Arbeev, Anatoliy Yashin |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 2 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |