Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: Most research initiatives have emerged from high-income countries (HIC), leaving a gap in understanding the disease's genetic basis in diverse populations like those in Latin American countries (LAC). ReDLat tackles this gap, focusing on LAC's unique genetics and socioeconomic factors to identify specific Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) risk factors in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil.

Method: We employed a comprehensive genetic analysis approach, integrating Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS), Exome Sequencing, and SNP arrays to understand the cohort's unique genetic architecture.

FAST functional connectivity implicates P300 connectivity in working memory deficits in Alzheimer's disease.

Measuring transient functional connectivity is an important challenge in electroencephalogram (EEG) research. Here, the rich potential for insightful, discriminative information of brain activity offered by high-temporal resolution is confounded by the inherent noise of the medium and the spurious nature of correlations computed over short temporal windows. We propose a methodology to overcome these problems called filter average short-term (FAST) functional connectivity.

Structural inequality linked to brain volume and network dynamics in aging and dementia across the Americas.

Structural inequality, the uneven distribution of resources and opportunities, influences health outcomes. However, the biological embedding of structural inequality in aging and dementia, especially among underrepresented populations, is unclear. We examined the association between structural inequality (country-level and state-level Gini indices) and brain volume and connectivity in 2,135 healthy controls, and individuals with Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobe degeneration from Latin America and the United States.

Neural dynamics of social verb processing: An MEG study.

Human vocabularies include specific words to communicate interpersonal behaviors, a core linguistic function mainly afforded by social verbs (SVs). This skill has been proposed to engage dedicated systems subserving social knowledge. Yet, neurocognitive evidence is scarce, and no study has examined spectro-temporal and spatial signatures of SV access.

Next generation brain health: transforming global research and public health to promote prevention of dementia and reduce its risk in young adult populations.

Efforts to prevent dementia can benefit from precision interventions delivered to the right population at the right time; that is, when the potential to reduce risk is the highest. Young adults (aged 18-39 years) are a neglected population in dementia research and policy making despite being highly exposed to several known modifiable risk factors. The risk and protective factors that have the biggest effect on dementia outcomes in young adulthood, and how these associations differ across regions and groups, still remain unclear.

The scent of habitat shift: Olfactory receptor evolution is associated with environmental transitions in turtles.

The transition between aquatic and terrestrial habitats leads to extreme structural changes in sensorial systems. Olfactory receptors (OR) are involved in the detection of odorant molecules both in water and on land. Therefore, ORs are affected by evolutionary habitat transitions experienced by organisms.

Unlocking the Secrets of Insects: The Role of Mass Spectrometry to Understand the Life of Insects.

Chemical signaling is crucial during the insect lifespan, significantly affecting their survival, reproduction, and ecological interactions. Unfortunately, most chemical signals insects use are impossible for humans to perceive directly. Hence, mass spectrometry has become a vital tool by offering vital insight into the underlying chemical and biochemical processes in various variety of insect activities, such as communication, mate recognition, mating behavior, and adaptation (defense/attack mechanisms), among others.

Triangulating the associations of different types of childhood adversity and first-episode psychosis with cortical thickness across brain regions.

Background: Both childhood adversity (CA) and first-episode psychosis (FEP) have been linked to alterations in cortical thickness (CT). The interactive effects between different types of CAs and FEP on CT remain understudied.

Methods: One-hundred sixteen individuals with FEP (mean age = 23.

Brain health is essential for smooth economic transitions: towards socio-economic sustainability, productivity and well-being.

Optimal brain health is essential to smoothing major global skill-intensive economic transitions, such as the bioeconomy, green, care economy and digital transitions. Good brain health is vital to socio-economic sustainability, productivity and well-being. The care transition focuses on recognizing and investing in care services and care work as essential for economic growth and social well-being.

Eco-phylogenetic study of Trebouxia in southern Africa reveals interbiome connectivity and potential endemism in a green algal lichen photobiont.

Premise: Southern Africa is a biodiversity hotspot rich in endemic plants and lichen-forming fungi. However, species-level data about lichen photobionts in this region are minimal. We focused on Trebouxia (Chlorophyta), the most common lichen photobiont, to understand how southern African species fit into the global biodiversity of this genus and are distributed across biomes and mycobiont partners.

Exploratory analysis of metabolic changes using mass spectrometry data and graph embeddings.

Mass spectrometry (MS)-based metabolomics analysis is a powerful tool, but it comes with its own set of challenges. The MS workflow involves multiple steps before its interpretation in what is denominate data mining. Data mining consists of a two-step process.

DNA methylation age from peripheral blood predicts progression to Alzheimer's disease, white matter disease burden, and cortical atrophy.

Cross-sectional studies suggest a limited relationship between accelerated epigenetic aging derived from epigenetic clocks, and Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathophysiology or risk. However, most prior analyses have not utilized longitudinal analyses or whole-brain neuroimaging biomarkers of AD. Herein, we employed longitudinal modeling and structural neuroimaging analyses to test the hypothesis that accelerated epigenetic aging would predict AD progression.

Cardioprotection and neurobehavioral impact of swimming training in ovariectomized rats.

Cardiovascular (CV) disease is the major cause of mortality. Estrogens (E) exert multiple CV and neuroprotective effects. During menopause, CV and cognitive pathologies increase dramatically.

Dementia risk reduction in the African context: Multi-national implementation of multimodal strategies to promote healthy brain aging in Africa (the Africa-FINGERS project).

Dementia prevention in Africa is critically underexplored, despite the continent's high prevalence of modifiable risk factors. With a predominantly young and middle-aged population, Africa presents a prime opportunity to implement evidence-based strategies that could significantly reduce future dementia cases and mitigate its economic impact. The multinational Africa-FINGERS program offers an innovative solution, pioneering culturally sensitive, multidomain interventions tailored to the unique challenges of the region.

Biomarkers of neurodegeneration across the Global South.

Research on neurodegenerative diseases has predominantly focused on high-income countries in the Global North. This Series paper describes the state of biomarker evidence for neurodegeneration in the Global South, including Latin America, Africa, and countries in south, east, and southeast Asia. Latin America shows growth in fluid biomarker and neuroimaging research, with notable advancements in genetics.

Severity of respiratory syncytial virus compared with SARS-CoV-2 and influenza among hospitalised adults ≥65 years.

Introduction: Our aim was to estimate the risk of pneumonia, admission to intensive care unit (ICU) or death in individuals ≥65 years old admitted to hospital with RSV, compared to influenza or COVID-19.

Methods: We included hospitalised patients from Severe Acute Respiratory Infection Surveillance in Spain between 2021-2024, aged ≥65 years, laboratory confirmed for RSV, influenza or SARS-CoV-2. Using a binomial regression with logarithmic link, we estimated the relative risk (RR) of pneumonia, ICU admission and in-hospital mortality, in patients with RSV compared to influenza or SARS-CoV-2, adjusting for age, sex, season and comorbidities.