40% of Elderly Brains Found to Include “LATE” (brain research)

Researchers studying donated brain tissue coined the term “LATE” a few years ago.  “LATE” stands for limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy.


Now, researchers from several countries have published the results of their analysis of donated brain tissue of over 6,000 cases of elderly people.  Researchers examined medical records where available.  Almost 40% of these elderly people were found to have LATE at autopsy.  LATE often co-existed with Alzheimer’s pathology.

Here’s a link to the abstract of this research study:

Frequency of LATE neuropathologic change across the spectrum of Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology: combined data from 13 community-based or population-based autopsy cohorts
Peter T. Nelson, et al
Acta Neuropathologica (2022), Published: 13 June 2022

You’ll note that the Mayo Clinic Brain Bank is one of the participants in this large study.  This means that about 15% of the brains included in this research came from the efforts of Brain Support Network!

If you are interested in making arrangements to donate your brain or a loved one’s brain, check out the Brain Support Network website!