Scientists are aware of the fact that mutations in the BRCA gene can lead to a higher risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers, since 1994, but this is the first time ever when researchers said that the gene could also play a part in the nerve death that causes Alzheimer’s disease.

Lennart Mucke and his colleagues at the Gladstone institute of Neurological Disease have reported in the journal Nature Communications about their discovery that the BRCA1 gene not just affects the way cells can grow by promoting cancer, but can also interfere with the ability of the nerve cells to repair their DNA.

The director of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, Mucke, bred mice with BRCA1, which can be mutated in many ways. Mucke found that in the case of breast cancers, some changes can trigger tumors’ growth. It is quite strange that BRCA1 also play a part in repairing DNA. This was the reason that repair wasn’t happening in animals with low levels of BRCA1, leading to memory issues.

Mucke also examined BRCA1 levels in autopsy brains of human beings, who had died with Alzheimer’s. In their brains, BRCA1 levels were around 75% lower as compared to the brains of the ones who had not died with the disease.

When asked, ‘Does that mean that people having BRCA1 mutations have more chances of developing Alzheimer’s?’ Mucke replied that it was not necessary.

There haven’t been studies relating BRCA1 mutations to a high risk of Alzheimer’s so far, but with the recent results, the association between the two could be worth a detailed look. Mucke said that no relation may have emerged because cancer patients could have been barred from Alzheimer’s studies.