Neuronal resilience as an active and programmable property

Amyloid-β oligomers are widely implicated in synaptic dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease, yet their presence alone does not determine neuronal failure. In this commentary, I discuss recent findings by Johnson et al. showing that nano-pulsed laser therapy reprograms adult hippocampal neural stem cells to generate neurons resistant to amyloid-β toxicity, likely through hormetic modulation of reactive oxygen species signaling and mitochondrial function. These findings support a reframing of Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology in which neuronal resilience is not merely a passive property, but an active and programmable therapeutic target.