Cognitively Healthy Centenarians are Resistant to Age-Related Brain Pathology

The article here notes that researchers find cognitively healthy centenarians exhibit levels of protein aggregation and other brain lesions typical of people showing symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases. They are in some way more resistant, but why this is the case is a continuing research project. It is possible to identify specific gene variants and more youthful gene expression for some genes in cognitively healthy older individuals, but it is long trek from that data to an understanding of the mechanisms involved. Researchers initially aimed to recruit 500 cognitively healthy centenarians. As of June 2021, 406 had signed up. Their average age when they joined was 101; the oldest is now 107. Seventy percent are women; 43 percent still live independently. About 30 percent have agreed to donate their brains after death and, to date, 95 of them have passed away. Researchers have presented the neuropathology findings from 85 of those. At autopsy, some of these centenarians were found to have had pathologies typical of people with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Many had been in stage 2 or 3 amyloidosis when they died, as judged by NIA criteria, and had accumulated stage 2 or even stage 3 neuritic plaques per CERAD scores. All were in at least Braak stage I for neurofibrillary tangles, though the majority were at stage III or higher. The brains weighed about as much as those from people who had had AD dementia, but neither plaques nor tangles correlated with cogniti...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs