Kunkle et al. Novel Alzheimer Disease Risk Loci and Pathways in African American Individuals Using the African Genome Resources Panel: A Meta-analysis  JAMA Neurol 2020

While African Americans are approximately twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than non-Hispanic whites (NHW), the largest Alzheimer’s disease GWAS to date have been conducted in NHW individuals. Though still small by GWAS standards, our current analysis of just over 8,000 individuals with African ancestry (2,784 AD cases; 5,222 controls) was able to identify 11 novel AD risk loci including one novel genome-wide significant locus near the gene IGF1R (P=1.7×10^-9; MAF = 0.01), and 10 novel loci associated at P <= 5 x 10^-7 (5 common variant loci and 6 rare variant loci). Interestingly, 8 of the 11 novel associated variants are not present in European ancestral populations according to the gnomAD allele frequency database.