Rs11136000

rs11136000 is a SNP associated with the clusterin CLU gene, which has also been known as the APOJ gene.

A study of over 5,000 Alzheimer's disease patients (and over 10,000 controls) found a slight protective effect of the (T) allele of this SNP. rs11136000(T) carriers had a slightly decreased risk for Alzheimer's disease, with an odds ratio of 0.84 (CI: 0.8-0.9, p=1.4x10e-9).

The association of this SNP and late-onset Alzheimer's disease was replicated over a total of another 1829 cases (and 2576 controls).

A MRI study of ~400 young (average age: 23) healthy carriers of rs11136000(C) alleles found a distinct profile of lower white matter integrity in these individuals that may increase their vulnerability to developing Alzheimer's later in life. To put it another way, 50 years before the actual development of Alzheimer's, most of us - after all, the (C) allele is the common one - apparently show some evidence of weakness in myelin, the protective covering around the neuron’s axons in the brain, (slightly) predisposing us to late-onset Alzheimer’s, at least compared to carriers of one or two (T) alleles.