Overview
- The USC-led analysis pooled Centiloid-standardized amyloid PET and clinical data from five large studies to examine 17,017 older adults, including about 1,427 Hispanic participants, a dataset reported Wednesday, June 17.
- Researchers found that Hispanic participants had lower average brain amyloid levels than clinically matched non-Hispanic white participants across diagnosis groups.
- APOE ε4 was linked to higher amyloid in both groups but the effect was much weaker in Hispanic participants — non-Hispanic whites with ε4 were more than four times as likely to show amyloid pathology versus roughly 2.5 times for Hispanic carriers.
- The team used the Centiloid scale to standardize PET amyloid measures and GAAIN to combine datasets, and they note limits including a relatively small Hispanic subsample, coarse ancestry measures, and cross-sectional amyloid data.
- Authors warn these findings could change how clinicians interpret Alzheimer’s risk and use anti-amyloid therapies for Hispanic patients and they call for larger, longitudinal, ancestry-informed studies that track amyloid, vascular health, genetics, and social factors.