The prevalence of brain changes associated with LATE, a form of dementia first identified in 2019, may be as high as 40% in older adults and 50% in those with Alzheimer's disease.
A new hypothesis suggests declining rates of dementia could be a result of generational differences in lifetime exposure to lead.
LATE, a form of dementia that appears in the oldest-old is often mistaken for Alzheimer's disease, but the brain pathology is very different. The protein TDP-43 appears to play a significant role in the development of LATE. The neurodegenerative disease may progress more gradually than Alzheimer's, but when combined with Alzheimer's disease (a common combination), appears to cause a more rapid decline than either would alone.
