Newly Named LATE Dementia Mimics Alzheimer's

A study published in Brain details a newly classified form of dementia called limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE), which manifests as memory and thinking problems that closely resemble Alzheimer's pathology, reports WebMD . A panel of experts said LATE mainly affects people older than 80 and may constitute approximately 17 percent of all dementia cases. This may help explain why some people who die with what seems to be Alzheimer's do not exhibit telltale disease symptoms in post-mortem brain tissue analysis — specifically, abnormal protein plaques and tangles. Nina Silverberg with the U.S. National Institute on Aging's Alzheimer's Disease Centers Program said LATE "mimics" Alzheimer's symptomatology, causing memory loss and problems with thinking and reasoning. But she noted brains affected by LATE, unlike Alzheimer's brains, show dysfunction in TDP-43, a protein that helps regulate gene expression in the brain. The study found 25 percent of adults older than 85 have sufficient abnormal TDP-43 to inhibit memory and thinking. LATE victims also are often marked by severe contraction of the hippocampus.