High-quality sleep found to ease cognitive deficits for Black people

The study sheds light on the importance of sleep in reducing the risk of cognitive decline in this vulnerable population.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

In a study focusing on the interaction between sleep and genetic factors associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in older African Americans, researchers found that high-quality sleep can mitigate cognitive deficits linked to the ABCA7 gene.

The study sheds light on the importance of sleep in reducing the risk of cognitive decline in this vulnerable population.

“This new finding suggests that someone with a high-risk variant may be able to overcome their genetic inheritance by improving their sleep habits,” said Bernadette Fausto, a research faculty member at Rutgers University-Newark in New Jersey. publication.

“The results were surprising,” said Fausto, the study’s lead author.
The findings, published in the latest issue of The Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, highlighted the disproportionate impact of both sleep deficiencies and AD on older African Americans.
Furthermore, genetic susceptibility to AD, specifically the ABCA7 locus rs115550680, exacerbates the risk of cognitive decline among individuals in this group.

The objective of the study was to examine how sleep quality and the ABCA7 gene variant rs115550680 affect cognitive function.

The study focused on hippocampus-dependent cognitive tasks closely related to AD and involved 114 cognitively healthy elderly African Americans genotyped for ABCA7 risk.
Of the participants, 57 carried the risk “G” allele, while the remaining 57 were noncarriers.

Participants completed lifestyle questionnaires, underwent cognitive assessments, and provided self-reported sleep quality ratings (poor, average, good).
Age and years of education were considered covariates in the analysis.

The results obtained through the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed a significant interaction between the ABCA7 risk genotype and sleep quality.
Carriers of the at-risk genotype who reported poor or average sleep quality showed markedly lower generalization of prior learning, a cognitive indicator of AD, than their non-at-risk counterparts.

In contrast, no genotype-related difference in generalization performance was observed among individuals who reported good sleep quality.
“These results suggest that high-quality sleep may have a neuroprotective effect against the genetic risk of Alzheimer’s disease,” commented the researchers.
“Improving sleep quality could potentially be an effective strategy for reducing cognitive decline in older African Americans.”

The researchers said the study’s conclusions underlined the need for further investigations into how sleep affects the pathogenesis and progression of ABCA7-associated AD.
The researchers concluded that future studies employing a more rigorous methodology and examining the neurophysiology of sleep are warranted to elucidate the specific role of sleep in the development of AD.

Furthermore, they highlight the importance of developing noninvasive sleep interventions tailored to racial groups, considering their specific genetic risk profiles for AD.
“Such interventions could prove crucial in mitigating the cognitive impact of genetic susceptibility in older African Americans and reducing health disparities in AD,” the study found.

The researchers determined that as the scientific community gains a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between sleep, genetics, and cognitive function, the findings may pave the way for new approaches to prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in populations. vulnerable, ultimately improving the overall well-being of older African Americans.