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Is Alzheimer's hereditary? What the genetics studies report
Alzheimer's runs in families in two very different ways: a rare inherited form that starts early, and a common form where genes raise risk without deciding it. This page shows what the library holds.
- 2,309studies in the library match, of 29,380
- 654name it in the title
- 1964–2026years published
- 2,222peer-reviewed articles
The query: title or abstract mentions "familial", "family history", "autosomal dominant", "PSEN1/PSEN2", "presenilin", "inherited/inheritance/heritable", "heritability", "APP mutation", "genetic risk" or "polygenic", matched case-insensitively against each record's title and abstract (its summary field) in alzhub's library of 29,380 study records, as of 2026-11-08. Every count on this page comes from that match. The matched list as JSON.
In a small share of families a single mutation in the APP, PSEN1 or PSEN2 gene causes the disease, usually with symptoms before age 65; this autosomal dominant form passes to half of each generation on average. People with Down syndrome, who carry an extra copy of the APP gene, also develop Alzheimer's pathology early.
For the common late-onset form, genes shift the odds rather than decide the outcome. APOE ε4 is the largest single factor, and dozens of other variants found in genome-wide studies each add a little. Having a parent or sibling with the disease raises risk, but most people with a family history do not develop it and most people who develop it have no affected parent.
This page describes what published research in alzhub's library reports. It is not medical advice and does not apply to any one person: a doctor who knows the person's history is the only one who can say what a result or a treatment means for them.
What the studies report, in their own words
Whole sentences copied from the abstract or key findings of the highest-scoring matched studies, chosen because they mention the subject and give a figure. 8 of the 2,309 matched records are quoted; each links to its study page and from there to the paper.
“Conclusions Among cognitively unimpaired participants with a family history of dementia, changes in cognition and brain MRI outcomes from baseline to year 3 did not differ significantly between those who followed the MIND diet and those who followed the control diet with mild caloric restriction.”
“Using polygenic prediction analysis, ~1.2% of the variance in general cognitive function was predicted in the Generation Scotland cohort (N=5487; P=1.5 × 10(-17)).”
“The clusterin (CLU) locus was an independent genetic risk factor for MCI to AD progression (CLU rs9331888: hazard ratio (HR)=1.187 (1.054-1.32); P=0.0035).”
“We confirm 20 previous LOAD risk loci and identify five new genome-wide loci (IQCK, ACE, ADAM10, ADAMTS1, and WWOX), two of which (ADAM10, ACE) were identified in a recent genome-wide association (GWAS)-by-familial-proxy of Alzheimer's or dementia.”
“Taken together however, although the heritability in AD is estimated to be as high as 80%, a large proportion of the underlying genetic factors still remain to be elucidated.”
“Late-onset Alzheimer's disease is a prevalent age-related polygenic disease that accounts for 50-70% of dementia cases.”
“APOE ɛ4, the most significant genetic risk factor for Alzheimer disease (AD), may mask effects of other loci.”
“The mean age of the participants was 72 years, approximately 60% were women, and 75% had a family history of dementia.”
What kind of evidence it is
By study design
| Design (as recorded) | Studies |
|---|---|
| Systematic review or meta-analysis | 63 |
| Randomised controlled trial | 6 |
| Other clinical trial | 9 |
| Cohort or longitudinal study | 178 |
| Case-control study | 47 |
| Cross-sectional study | 63 |
| Other recorded design | 7 |
| No design recorded | 1,936 |
The design is the one named in alzhub's record for the study; a record with none is counted as "no design recorded".
By year
| Year | Studies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 134 | |
| 2025 | 224 | |
| 2024 | 92 | |
| 2023 | 100 | |
| 2022 | 98 | |
| 2021 | 119 | |
| 2020 | 124 | |
| 2019 | 110 | |
| 2018 | 94 | |
| 2017 | 93 | |
| 2016 and earlier | 1,121 |
Other counts within the matched set
| Peer-reviewed articles | 2,222 |
| Marked open access in the record | 652 |
| Rated "high" evidence strength in alzhub's summary | 111 |
| Rated "moderate" evidence strength in alzhub's summary | 375 |
| Rated "low" evidence strength in alzhub's summary | 1,797 |
| No evidence-strength rating | 26 |
| Records stating a participant count | 568 |
| Median participants (those records) | 377 |
| Largest participant count | 1,059,130 |
Within the 2,309 matched studies
| Studies… | Count | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| …on the autosomal dominant (single-gene) form | 778 | the abstract also contains "autosomal dominant", "PSEN1/2", "presenilin" or "APP mutation" |
| …that mention family history | 202 | the abstract also contains "family history", "parental" or "first-degree relative" |
| …that mention a polygenic risk score | 237 | the abstract also contains "polygenic" |
The 10 highest-scoring matched studies
Title matches first, then by alzhub's usefulness score, which rates a study's design, journal, evidence and recency, not whether its result is good news.
- Polygenic scores and Mendelian randomization identify plasma proteins causally implicated in Alzheimer's disease
- Alzheimer's disease genetic risk score and neuroimaging in the FINGER lifestyle trial
- A trial of gantenerumab or solanezumab in dominantly inherited Alzheimer's disease
- Safety and efficacy of long-term gantenerumab treatment in dominantly inherited Alzheimer's disease: an open-label extension of the phase 2/3 multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled platform DIAN-TU trial
- GWAS on family history of Alzheimer's disease
- Case-control association mapping by proxy using family history of disease
- Clinical and Biomarker Changes in Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer's Disease
- Impact of Short-Term Computerized Cognitive Training on Cognition in Older Adults With and Without Genetic Risk of Alzheimer's Disease: Outcomes From the START Randomized Controlled Trial
- Association of Lifestyle and Genetic Risk With Incidence of Dementia
- Genome-wide survival study identifies a novel synaptic locus and polygenic score for cognitive progression in Parkinson's disease
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses in the set
63 of the matched records are recorded as a systematic review, meta-analysis or umbrella review; the highest-scoring not already listed above:
- Genetic contributions to variation in general cognitive function: a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in the CHARGE consortium (N=53949)
- Genome-wide significant risk factors for Alzheimer's disease: role in progression to dementia due to Alzheimer's disease among subjects with mild cognitive impairment
- Genetic meta-analysis of diagnosed Alzheimer's disease identifies new risk loci and implicates Aβ, tau, immunity and lipid processing
- Genome-wide association meta-analysis identifies 48 risk variants and highlights the role of the stria vascularis in hearing loss
- Whole-genome sequencing reveals novel ethnicity-specific rare variants associated with Alzheimer's disease
Newest matched studies
- Pregnancy History and Loss of Normal PSEN2 Function Impact Female Late-Life Cognitive Processing, Inhibitory Signaling, and Gliosis
- ApoE4 and Psychosis in Neurodegenerative and Non-Neurodegenerative Disease: A Scoping Review
- Cerebrospinal fluid α-synuclein seed amplification assay positivity identifies a prognostically distinct subgroup in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- A family-aware All of Us benchmark for polygenic prediction and genomic machine learning
- Current gaps in downstream applications of fMRI foundation models: lessons learned from BrainLM & BrainHarmonix on Prevent-AD
Journals with the most matched studies
| Journal | Studies |
|---|---|
| Neurology | 88 |
| Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | 64 |
| Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association | 56 |
| The Journal of biological chemistry | 51 |
| Nature | 49 |
Questions
- If my parent had Alzheimer's, will I get it?
- Not necessarily. A parent with the common late-onset form raises your risk but does not decide it; most children of people with Alzheimer's do not develop it. The rare single-gene form, which usually starts before 65 and affects several generations, is the exception, and a genetic counsellor is the right person to ask about it.
- What is autosomal dominant Alzheimer's?
- A form caused by a single mutation in the APP, PSEN1 or PSEN2 gene. Each child of a carrier has a one-in-two chance of inheriting the mutation, and nearly everyone who inherits it develops the disease, usually in their forties or fifties. It accounts for a very small share of all cases.
- How many studies on is alzheimer's hereditary? does alzhub hold?
- 2,309 of the 29,380 study records in alzhub's library match the query "title or abstract mentions "familial", "family history", "autosomal dominant", "PSEN1/PSEN2", "presenilin", "inherited/inheritance/heritable", "heritability", "APP mutation", "genetic risk" or "polygenic""; 654 of them name it in the title. Counted from the records when this page was built.
- What kinds of study are they?
- 63 systematic review or meta-analysis, 6 randomised controlled trials, 9 other clinical trials, 178 cohort or longitudinal studys, 47 case-control studys, 63 cross-sectional studys; 1,936 record no design.
- What is the most recent study in the set?
- "Pregnancy History and Loss of Normal PSEN2 Function Impact Female Late-Life Cognitive Processing, Inhibitory Signaling, and Gliosis" (bioRxiv, 2026), the newest by publication date among the matched records.
- Which journals publish most on it?
- Neurology (88); Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (64); Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association (56), counted across the matched records.
Read on
- GeneticsAPOE, other risk genes, and who the studies included.
- APOE4 and Alzheimer's riskThe largest single genetic factor.
- Down syndrome and Alzheimer'sThe extra copy of the amyloid gene.