The genetic mutations that lie behind most cases of Alzheimer’s disease may be found inside cell powerhouses known as mitochondria, U.S. researchers said on Monday. They said they found mutations in mitochondrial DNA in 65 percent of patients in a study who died of Alzheimer’s, and none of the patients who died of something else. Their finding, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help shed light on the most common form of Alzheimer’s, which affects more than 4 million people in the United States alone.
