Core I: Latino Core

ABSTRACT – LATINO CORE The overall goal of the Latino Core is to support high quality, cutting edge, research projects on the etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) by providing data and biospecimens from well-characterized, longitudinally followed Latinos who initially enroll without dementia from the community. Latinos are at greater risk of ADRD than non-Latino Whites, but the field has struggled to engage this population in clinical research. In response to the NAPA milestones on health disparities/equity, our Latino Core will support studies that assess the epidemiology, and mechanistic pathways of disparities in health burden of ADRD, and facilitate engagement, understanding, and partnership with our diverse participants using culturally-tailored approaches and research efforts to understand and advance the science of disparities. Despite the existence of large, productive studies that include Latinos, progress in the field has been hampered by a critical lack of brain tissue from well characterized older Latinos without dementia. Moreover, there is limited data regarding cognitive decline and transitions from normal aging to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia among older Latinos; and few studies have examined blood biomarker differences across race/ethnicity. Building on our history of success and experience working with underserved communities, the Latino Core is poised to fill a critical gap in our knowledge base, and accelerate research in health disparities by providing resources, including participants, clinical data, and ante- and postmortem biospecimens to support a wide range of research studies – particularly those that historically have had limited data from diverse groups (e.g., neuroimaging, genomics, epigenomics, proteomics, and metabolomics).