Genetic variants associated with decreased levels of pathogenic proteins ITGB6 (rs8099840; Fig. 5a,b), TLR5 (rs1403631, rs75118229; Fig. 5c,d), F7 (rs6046), HERC5 (rs406936) and MGA (rs704) were associated with preserved brain volumes over time, including in regions susceptible to infection-specific atrophy (Extended Data Fig. 5). This evidence concerns the gene MGA and infection.