High-Quality Sleep Mitigates ABCA7-Related Generalization Deficits in Healthy Older African Americans

Both sleep deficiencies and Alzheimer's disease (AD) disproportionately affect older African Americans. Genetic susceptibility to AD further compounds risk for cognitive decline in this population. Aside from APOE ɛ4, ABCA7 rs115550680 is the strongest genetic locus associated with late-onset AD in African Americans. While sleep and ABCA7 rs115550680 independently influence late-life cognitive outcomes, we know too little about the interplay between these two factors on cognitive function.

We investigated the interaction between sleep and ABCA7 rs115550680 on hippocampal-dependent cognitive function in older African Americans.

One-hundred fourteen cognitively healthy older African Americans were genotyped for ABCA7 risk (n = 57 carriers of risk "G" allele; n = 57 non-carriers), responded to lifestyle questionnaires, and completed a cognitive battery. Sleep was assessed via a self-reported rating of sleep quality (poor, average, good). Covariates included age and years of education.

Using ANCOVA, we found that carriers of the risk genotype who reported poor or average sleep quality demonstrated significantly poorer generalization of prior learning-a cognitive marker of AD-compared to their non-risk counterparts. Conversely, there was no genotype-related difference in generalization performance in individuals who reported good sleep quality.

These results indicate that sleep quality may be neuroprotective against genetic risk for AD. Future studies employing more rigorous methodology should investigate the mechanistic role of sleep neurophysiology in the pathogenesis and progression of AD associated with ABCA7. There is also need for the continued development of non-invasive sleep interventions tailored to racial groups with specific AD genetic risk profiles.