Identification and expression analysis of a potential familial Alzheimer disease gene on chromosome 1 related to AD3.

The inheritance of much early-onset Alzheimer disease (AD) has been linked to a dominant-acting locus on chromosome 14. Recently, the gene likely responsible for this genetic linkage has been identified and termed AD3. Five mutations have been found in AD3 that segregate with the disease phenotype in seven AD families and are not present in unaffected individuals. Here we report the existence of a gene encoding a seven transmembrane domain protein very similar to that encoded by AD3 in structure and sequence. This gene is located on chromosome 1, is expressed in a variety of tissues, including brain, and is predicted to harbor mutations causing nonchromosome 14 familial AD. The presence of several S/TPXX DNA binding motifs in both the AD3 protein and the AD3-like protein /AD4 protein suggests a possible role in intracellular signaling and gene expression or in linking chromatin to the nuclear membrane. Ways in which mutations in either gene could lead to AD are discussed.

On the belief that arthritis pain is related to the weather.

There is a widespread and strongly held belief that arthritis pain is influenced by the weather; however, scientific studies have found no consistent association. We hypothesize that this belief results, in part at least, from people's tendency to perceive patterns where none exist. We studied patients (n = 18) for more than I year and found no statistically significant associations between their arthritis pain and the weather conditions implicated by each individual. We also found that college students (n = 97) tend to perceive correlations between uncorrelated random sequences. This departure of people's intuitive notion of association from the statistical concept of association, we suggest, contributes to the belief that arthritis pain is influenced by the weather.