Olfactory Function in Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease: A Multi-Cohort Study

Cognitively normal older adults who were amyloid-positive showed significantly lower odor identification than amyloid-negative peers, with no evidence of cohort heterogeneity across PREVENT-AD and UCLouvain.

• Why it matters: The study addresses whether olfactory performance tracks early AD pathology and whether it can forecast later clinical decline in characterized cognitively normal individuals.
• What they did: Odor identification was tested in 257 CN older adults (217 PREVENT-AD, 40 UCLouvain; 76 CN A+, 181 CN A-), alongside tau-PET and structural MRI, and longitudinal conversion to MCI was assessed in 250 participants.
• The result: Higher odor identification predicted a 16% lower hazard of incident MCI per 10-percentage-point increase, independent of baseline global cognition and APOE {epsilon}4-carrier status, and parahippocampal tau burden related to odor identification only in UCLouvain with [18F]MK-6240.

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