LATE Meeting Part 1: Evolving Concepts & Clinical Relevance

LATE, short for Limbic-predominant Age-related TDP-43 Encephalopathy, is a brain disorder that is related to the slow progression of memory loss in aging, thereby mimicking the clinical features of Alzheimer’ disease. Like Alzheimer’s disease, LATE is very common in older persons and has a large public health impact. Unlike Alzheimer’s disease, there is little recognition and research on LATE. This sparked a workshop on LATE in 2018 and the inclusion of a session on LATE at the subsequent Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias Summit in 2019. These initiatives increased awareness and accelerated research on LATE, but there is an urgent need for more research to uncover the clinical impacts and biological causes of the disease. LATE 2022 is an open follow-up meeting organized in collaboration with NIA to continue the conversation on LATE with a series of talks and discussions on the research since the last workshop. The meeting will include a wide range of topics including epidemiology, clinical and imaging features, potential biomarkers, and genetic studies in LATE. The meeting will also highlight and have open discussion on the important intersection between LATE and frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP-43 inclusions (FTLD-TDP), including similarities as well as important differences that distinguish the two, and the common co-occurrence of LATE with Alzheimer’s disease. The goals of LATE 2022 are to provide updates, stimulate discussion, and consider future directions.