A lot of “weird testis genes” are epigenetically silenced in somatic cells (for example, suppressed by DNA methylation), and this epigenetic control becomes defective in disease states, especially cancer. There are a whole category of “cancer/testis antigens,” proteins which are usually expressed only in the testis but which are expressed in cancers like melanoma. There are currently cancer vaccine trials to target immune responses against these proteins (which might also cause male infertility but that’s probably an acceptable tradeoff).
Maybe something similar is going on with LINC01609 in Alzheimer’s.
A lot of “weird testis genes” are epigenetically silenced in somatic cells (for example, suppressed by DNA methylation), and this epigenetic control becomes defective in disease states, especially cancer. There are a whole category of “cancer/testis antigens,” proteins which are usually expressed only in the testis but which are expressed in cancers like melanoma. There are currently cancer vaccine trials to target immune responses against these proteins (which might also cause male infertility but that’s probably an acceptable tradeoff).
Maybe something similar is going on with LINC01609 in Alzheimer’s.