Genetics of Neurodegenerative Diseases

A great deal has been discovered about Neurodegenerative disorders (NDDs) including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies . This includes genetic variants associated with both sporadic and autosomal dominant NDDs. These findings have been crucial in our understanding the underlying factors that drive neuropathological changes and in clarifying the time line of biomarker changes in presymptomatic autosomal dominant mutation carriers. While much is still to be learned, these findings will play an important role in the future of neurodegenerative prediction, diagnosis, and treatment. This chapter summarizes the current genetic knowledge related to both the sporadic and autosomal dominant forms of neurodegenerative disease.