Is Alzheimer’s disease hereditary?
Dr. Maurizio Grimaldi
Maurizio Grimaldi, MD, PhD
Most Alzheimer’s patients experience the sporadic form also known as late onset Alzheimer’s. This form of the disease is not a hereditary disease although there is some familiarity.
Sometimes if a member of the family has the disease, the siblings show a higher risk. This could be due to environmental factors. 99.9 percent of the cases of Alzheimer’s disease are not hereditary though.
Sporadic Alzheimer’s disease has a slow progression. However, there are a very limited number of cases that runs in families in which a hereditary component has been identified. This form of the disease is called Familiar Alzheimer’s disease and is characterized by early onset and rapid progression.
Maurizio Grimaldi, MD, Ph.D. is the Leader of the Neuropharmacology/neuroscience Laboratory at Southern Research Institute in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. Grimaldi graduated from medical school magna cum laude from the University of Napoli in Italy, one of the oldest and most prestigious academic institutions in Italy. Specializing in clinical pharmacology, Dr. Grimaldi obtained his PhD in neuropharmacology and toxicology from the same University. At Southern Research Dr. Grimaldi directs the laboratory of neuropharmacology where he conducts researches on brain physiology and on novel treatment agents for CNS diseases such as Alzheimer’s and brain tumors. Dr. Grimaldi also directs the commercial activities for the Neuropharmacology Laboratory at Southern Research, including low-throughput screening. He is co-investigator in the NIH-NINDS Drug Screening for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Stroke. In this capacity, he supervises assay transfer from submitting investigators to the high-throughput screening facility. Visit him at www.SouthernResearch.com.