Takeaway
Aggregating cortical peptides associated with cognitive decline into an index score may help to identify older adults with higher cognitive resilience – a slower than anticipated cognitive decline despite the presence of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) pathologies.
Why this matters?
Instruments to identify the level of cognitive resilience in older adults are not available due to an incomplete understanding of underlying biological mechanisms.
The cortical resilience peptides identified here might be potential targets for therapies that help maintain brain health in older adults.
Identifying adults with high or low cognitive resilience will help inform the homogeneity of study populations for clinical trials as well as facilitate risk stratification for early intervention.