Boston Latino Aging Study (BLAST): Understanding Alzheimer's risk and biomarkers in older Latinos

拉丁裔是美国老年人中增长最快的亚群， 阿尔茨海默病（AD）比非拉丁裔白人（1）。尽管如此，我们对正常衰老的认识， 下降，拉丁美洲人中AD相关的神经退行性变很少。越来越多的证据表明 AD发作与几个可改变的因素之间的关系，其中一些因素传递风险（例如，中年高血压，睡眠 和情绪紊乱）。其他因素也被认为是保护性的，比如经常参加体育活动， 管理心血管风险因素（即，糖尿病、肥胖症和高血压），保持健康饮食， 终身学习（2）。还已知这些可改变的风险因素中的一些具有较高的 与非拉丁美洲人相比，拉丁美洲人的患病率（3）。然而，这些因素如何独立或 交互式地使老年拉丁美洲人更容易受到AD病理学、认知能力下降和 痴呆症仍不清楚。因此，研究不同的AD危险因素对认知、脑功能和神经功能的影响， 功能，和老年拉丁美洲人的AD病理分子标志物是改善预防的关键， 早期发现，并开发新的治疗和干预措施， 被忽视的人群 为了促进招募和参与生物标志物和衰老研究的拉丁美洲人，我们启动了一项登记研究， 居住在马萨诸塞州的老年社区居住的拉丁美洲人（称为波士顿拉丁美洲老龄化登记处）。 此外，在2019年行政补充的支持下，我们开始纳入更多的拉丁裔 参与者正在进行的国家情报局资助的哈佛老化大脑研究，这是现在被称为拉丁美洲HABS。我们 我建议在这些先前的招募工作的基础上，研究非痴呆患者的衰老和临床前AD。 拉丁裔和非拉丁裔白色人。所有参与者将接受全面评估， 认知，淀粉样蛋白和tau PET扫描，以及结构和静息功能磁共振成像。他们也将完成自我- 报告可改变的痴呆症风险因素（如心血管疾病，睡眠，情绪）的措施，所有这些都将 用于创建整体痴呆风险评分。将对拉丁美洲人和非拉丁美洲人进行比较 在所有的目的，目的是利用这些发现来验证和告知生物标志物的发现在老年拉丁美洲人。 我们的最终目标是建立一个老年拉丁美洲人的队列，我们可以跟踪加班。为当前 R01补助金，我们建议招募200名老年社区居民（60 - 80岁; 150名拉丁裔 和50名非拉丁美洲人），并将他们与200名已经参加HABS的人（60 - 80岁; 150名非拉丁美洲人和50名非拉丁美洲人）进行比较。 1）调查老年拉丁美洲人和非拉丁美洲人的可改变的痴呆风险因素和认知; 2） 检查老年拉丁美洲人和非拉丁美洲人中可改变的痴呆风险因素和记忆网络功能障碍; 和3）检查可改变的痴呆风险因素和脑病理学标志物之间的关联， 拉丁美洲人和非拉丁美洲人。

Latinos are the fastest growing subpopulation of older adults in the U.S.A. and have a greater prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) than non-Latino whites (1). Despite this, our knowledge of normal aging, cognitive decline, and AD-related neurodegeneration in Latinos is sparse. A growing body of evidence supports a link between AD onset and several modifiable factors, some of which convey risk (e.g., mid-life hypertension, sleep and mood distrurbance). Other factors are considered protective, such as engaging in regular physical activity, managing cardiovascular risk factors (i.e., diabetes, obesityand hypertension), maintaining a healthy diet, and engaging in lifelong learning (2). It is also known that some of these modifiable risk factors have a higher prevalence in Latinos, compared to non-Latinos (3). Nonetheless, how these factors independently or interactively make older Latinos more vulnerable to accumulation of AD pathology, cognitive decline, and dementia remains unclear. Thus, investigating the impact of different AD risk factors on cognition, brain function, and AD molecular markers of pathology in older Latinos is pivotal to improving prevention, early detection, and development of novel treatments and interventions for this critically underserved and understudied population. To promote recruitment and participation of Latinos in biomarker and aging research, we initiated a registry of older community-dwelling Latinos living in Massachusetts (known as the Boston Latino Aging Registry). Furthermore, with the support of an administrative supplement in 2019 we began to include more Latino participants in the ongoing NIA-funded Harvard Aging Brain Study, which is now known as Latino HABS. We propose to build upon these previous recruitment efforts to study aging and preclinical AD in non-demented older Latinos and non-Latino White individuals. All participants will undergo a comprehensive assessment of cognition, amyloid and tau PET scanning, as well as structural and resting fMRI. They will also complete self- report measures of modifiable dementia risk factors (e.g. cardiovascular disease, sleep, mood), all of which will be used to create an overall dementia risk score. Comparisons between Latinos and non-Latinos will be made in all aims with the goal of using the findings to validate and inform biomarker findings in older Latinos. Our ultimate goal is to build a cohort of older Latinos that we can be followed up overtime. For the current R01 grant, we propose to enroll a total of 200 older community dwelling individuals (60-80 years; 150 Latinos and 50 non-Latinos) and compare them to 200 already enrolled in HABS (60-80 years; 150 non-Latinos and 50 Latinos) to 1) investigate modifiable dementia risk factors and cognition in older Latinos and non-Latinos; 2) examine modifiable dementia risk factors and memory network dysfunction in older Latinos and non-Latinos; and 3) examine the associations between modifiable dementia risk factors and markers of brain pathology in older Latinos and non-Latinos.