We analyzed brains from octogenarians and cognitively resilient centenarians to understand why some individuals with substantial Alzheimer’s disease pathology develop dementia whereas others remain cognitively intact. Spatial transcriptomics revealed gene expression changes in discrete tissue domains surrounding amyloid plaques and tau pathology that distinguish early, clinically silent, disease from later stages associated with cognitive decline.
Simons, M., Levin, J. & Dichgans, M.
Tipping points in neurodegeneration. Neuron 111 , 2954–2968 (2023).
A review article that explains how important transitions (tipping points) determine the course of neurodegenerative disease. Zhang, M.
et al. The correlation between neuropathology levels and cognitive performance in centenarians.
Alzheimers Dement. 19 , 5036–5047 (2023).
This paper investigates resilience in centenarians. de Vries, L.
E., Huitinga, I., Kessels, H. W., Swaab, D.
F. & Verhaagen, J.
The concept of resilience to Alzheimer’s Disease: current definitions and cellular and molecular mechanisms. Mol.
Neurodegener. 19 , 33 (2024).
A review article that presents a theoretical conceptualization of different forms of resilience to dementia in neurodegenerative disease. Chen, W.-T.
et al. Spatial transcriptomics and in situ sequencing to study Alzheimer’s disease.
Nature Medicine published a clinical update in Research Highlights on 11 Jun 2026.
The item focuses on Microglia at a key inflection point in Alzheimer’s disease.
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