COSMIC (Cohort Studies of Memory in an International Consortium): An international consortium to identify risk and protective factors and biomarkers of cognitive ageing and dementia in diverse ethnic and sociocultural groups

Abstract

BackgroundA large number of longitudinal studies of population-based ageing cohorts are in progress internationally, but the insights from these studies into the risk and protective factors for cognitive ageing and conditions like mild cognitive impairment and dementia have been inconsistent. Some of the problems confounding this research can be reduced by harmonising and pooling data across studies. COSMIC (Cohort Studies of Memory in an International Consortium) aims to harmonise data from international cohort studies of cognitive ageing, in order to better understand the determinants of cognitive ageing and neurocognitive disorders.Methods/DesignLongitudinal studies of cognitive ageing and dementia with at least 500 individuals aged 60 years or over are eligible and invited to be members of COSMIC. There are currently 17 member studies, from regions that include Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. A Research Steering Committee has been established, two meetings of study leaders held, and a website developed. The initial attempts at harmonising key variables like neuropsychological test scores are in progress.DiscussionThe challenges of international consortia like COSMIC include efficient communication among members, extended use of resources, and data harmonisation. Successful harmonisation will facilitate projects investigating rates of cognitive decline, risk and protective factors for mild cognitive impairment, and biomarkers of mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Extended implications of COSMIC could include standardised ways of collecting and reporting data, and a rich cognitive ageing database being made available to other researchers. COSMIC could potentially transform our understanding of the epidemiology of cognitive ageing, and have a world-wide impact on promoting successful ageing.

A profile of The Clinical Course of Cognition and Comorbidity in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Study (The 4C study): two complementary longitudinal, clinical cohorts in the Netherlands

“…[29] or [30]) are complementary in that the population-based studies have the advantage of being systematically sampled from well characterized base populations, whereas the clinical samples are able to add more detail in terms of frequency and type/comprehensiveness of assessment. To maximize the combined value of these data [31], initiatives such as IALSA [32] and COSMIC [33] help to identify datasets as well as provide methodologies in their combined analyses.…”

Subjective Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: An Overview of Self-Report Measures Used Across 19 International Research Studies

“…In contrast to extensive efforts to refine and standardize AD biomarkers [26–28] and criteria for conditions such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) [29–33], research on the standardization and quantification of SCD is relatively limited. Many approaches are used to define and quantify SCD and related constructs, such as cognitive complaints, memory complaints, subjective memory impairment, and subjective cognitive impairment, with no agreed-upon standards [22, 23].…”

Contribution of classical end-joining to PTEN inactivation in p53-mediated glioblastoma formation and drug-resistant survival

“…To investigate the relevance of NHEJ gene defects in human GBMs, we assessed the data from human GBM samples in the COSMIC17 and cBioPortal database14 for molecular alterations in NHEJ genes. This revealed that nearly 14% (97/695) were reduced in NHEJ gene expression ( XRCC4 (8/695), LIG4 (19/695), Ku80/ XRCC5 (6/695), Ku70/ XRCC6 (44/695), Artemis/ DCLRE1C (18/695) and Cernunnos/ NHEJ1 (2/695)) (Supplementary Table 1 and Supplementary Fig.…”