Scientists find Sephardic Jews more Likely to Have early-onset Alzheimer’s disease

In what they are calling a huge breakthrough, Israeli scientists say they have found that a person’s ethnic background determines the likelihood of one’s developing early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Specifically, Sephardic Jews (those of Middle Eastern origin) are more inclined to suffer from the disease than Ashkenazi Jews (Jews of European origin).

If confirmed, this could lead to new ways to uncover which people are most likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, possibly through genetic testing at birth. And perhaps some sort of preventive treatment could be developed for people who test positive for the gene.

Sephardic Jews are descendants of the Jewish communities that flourished in Spain and Portugal for centuries before their expulsion in 1492 and 1496, respectively. The term “Sephardi” comes from the Hebrew word “Sepharad,” which means “Spain.” The word “Sepharad” is a location mentioned in the Biblical Book of Obadiah (1: 20) and refers to a place where the Prophet said Jews would live in the future.

After the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, most resettled in North Africa and so the term came to be synonymous with Middle Eastern Jews, mostly those who lived in Arab lands.

Ashkenazic Jews hail from the Jewish diasporas in Northern and Eastern Europe. Ashkenaz was the first son of Gomer, son of Japhet, son of Noah, from the Biblical flood story. The area of central Europe now Germany was called by this name by the Jews who settled there for unknown reasons. Perhaps it was believed that this is where Ashkenaz’s descendants eventually settled.

Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease is a form of Alzheimer’s that strikes at a younger age than the more common late-onset form. It is diagnosed before age 65, typically between 30 and 60 years old.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disease that impacts memory, thinking and behavior. Early-onset Alzheimer’s has the same symptoms as the late-onset form, but they start at a younger age.

The new study from Beilinson Hospital’s Cognitive Neurology Department focused on patients who developed Alzheimer’s disease before the age of 65. It found that 64 percent of diagnoses were from Sephardic Jewish backgrounds while 36 percent originated from Ashkenazic backgrounds.

The study has already garnered interest from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Institutes of Health (NIH), which has invested more than 13 Million U.S. Dollars in an expanded study that will be completed by Beilinson Hospital, Boston University School of Medicine and three other collaborating medical centers in Israel furthering its research in the hopes that it will lead to a potential revolutionizing of early detection methods, drug development and overall patient care.

Beilinson Hospital’s Cognitive Neurology Department first embarked on the study in 2017 after identifying a trend of ethnic disproportionality in younger patients suffering from dementia.

The next stage of the study will see Beilinson Hospital’s Cognitive Neurology Department collaborate with Prof. Lindsay A. Farrer from Boston University School of Medicine in the United States as well as Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon and Laniado Hospital in Netanya to review an additional 2,000 cases of Israelis suffering from late-onset Alzheimer’s disease and 2,000 healthy controls in the hopes of identifying specific genes associated with the disease, enabling earlier detection and targeted interventions.

“We are extremely thankful to the U.S. National Institutes of Health for supporting our efforts, which are likely to change the way we identify and treat Alzheimer’s patients in Israel and across the world,” said Beilinson Hospital Director of Cognitive Neurology Dr. Amir Glik. “By pinpointing risk factors for Alzheimer’s within non-Ashkenazic populations, we can identify at-risk individuals preemptively and develop treatments to mitigate disease progression, allowing the enhancement of their quality of life, and greater dignity as the disease progresses.”