Advertising Disclosure

Study links ‘super agers’ to lower Alzheimer’s genetic risk

Researchers find older adults with youthful memory are far less likely to carry a high-risk Alzheimer’s gene

Updated:

Avatar photo
By:
Avatar photo

Mark Huffman
Reporter

Mark Huffman has covered consumer issues since 2004, with a special focus on protecting and empowering older adults. A former news correspondent for the Associated Press Radio Network, Westwood One, and ConsumerAffairs, Mark brings decades of journalistic experience to RetirementLiving.com. He is passionate about giving consumers a voice and helping them make informed decisions. Mark has also created educational content, including Senior Scam Alert, a video resource designed to help seniors recognize and avoid fraud. He holds a B.A. from the University of Kentucky and lives with his family in Richmond, Virginia.
age-cymru-unsplash

Photo by Age Cymru on Unsplash

Key Insights

  • Some people in their 80s and beyond retain memory skills typical of people decades younger, earning them the label “super agers.”
  • A large new study finds these super agers are far less likely to carry the gene variant most strongly linked to Alzheimer’s disease and more likely to carry a protective version.
  • The findings may help scientists better understand genetic resilience to Alzheimer’s, potentially shaping future prevention research.

Why do some people reach their 80s and 90s with memories as sharp as someone in middle age, while others develop Alzheimer’s disease? A new study suggests part of the answer may lie in genetics.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center report that “super agers” — adults aged 80 or older whose cognitive performance rivals people 20 to 30 years younger — are significantly less likely to carry APOE-ε4, the gene variant associated with the highest genetic risk of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. At the same time, they are more likely to carry APOE-ε2, a variant believed to offer protection against the disease.

The findings were published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, the journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, and represent the largest study of super agers conducted to date.

A genetic profile that stands out

The APOE gene plays a critical role in how the brain processes fats and cholesterol. One version, APOE-ε4, is widely considered the strongest genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Another version, APOE-ε2, has long been thought to reduce risk.

In the study, super agers were 68% less likely to carry APOE-ε4 compared with people aged 80 and older who had Alzheimer’s dementia. Even more striking, super agers were 19% less likely to carry APOE-ε4 than cognitively normal peers in the same age group.

“That was our most striking finding,” said Leslie Gaynor, PhD, assistant professor of medicine in Vanderbilt’s Division of Geriatric Medicine. “Although all adults who reach the age of 80 without a diagnosis of dementia exhibit exceptional aging, our study suggests that super agers represent a particularly exceptional group with a reduced genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease.”

More of the ‘good’ gene, too

For the first time, researchers also found that super agers were more likely to carry APOE-ε2. Compared with cognitively normal adults over 80, super agers were 28% more likely to have the protective variant. Compared with participants over 80 who had Alzheimer’s dementia, they were 103% more likely to carry APOE-ε2.

These findings strengthen the idea that genetics may help explain why some older adults remain cognitively resilient well into advanced age.

A large, diverse study

The observational study analyzed data from 18,080 participants drawn from eight national aging cohorts through the Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project Phenotype Harmonization Consortium. It included multiple racial and ethnic groups, with more than 1,600 super agers overall, nearly 8,900 people with Alzheimer’s dementia, and more than 7,600 cognitively normal controls.

Super agers were defined as adults aged 80 or older whose memory scores exceeded the average performance of cognitively normal adults ages 50 to 64 — a demanding benchmark that highlights just how unusual this group is.

Why it matters

Worldwide, about 13.7% of people carry the APOE-ε4 variant. In this study population, the frequency was much higher, reflecting the focus on aging and dementia. The clear genetic differences seen in super agers suggest they may offer valuable clues for understanding resistance to Alzheimer’s disease.

“With interest in super agers growing, our findings encourage the view that the super-ager phenotype will prove useful in the search for mechanisms that confer resilience to Alzheimer’s,” Gaynor said.

While the results do not mean genetics alone determines who will or won’t develop Alzheimer’s, they point to biological pathways that may one day guide prevention strategies — and help explain how some minds stay remarkably sharp, even in the oldest years of life.