LAUSR

A major advance in Alzheimer disease (AD) research over the past decade has been the development of PET and CSF biomarkers for amyloid and tau. They are now part of the most recent National Institute on Aging–Alzheimer’s Association AD research framework, which defines AD on the basis of biomarkers or neuropathology rather than the clinical syndrome.1 This represents an important advance because it allows us to investigate the relationship of risk factors with cognitive impairment at the level of the etiology of AD. This is urgently needed because more than a dozen neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular brain pathologies are relevant to cognitive decline in later life.2 Other factors that increase or decrease resilience to these neuropathologies are also relevant.2 Among the most well studied and robust risk factors for amyloid in non-Hispanic Whites is APOE ε4, with some data suggesting similar findings in self-identified African Americans (Blacks).3 However, data on Hispanics are more limited.4 In the current issue of Neurology®, Palta et al.5 examine the relation of APOE ε4 to amyloid in middle-aged Hispanics.