Telomere Length Variation in the Lewy Body Diseases and its Relationship to Epigenetic Age

The Lewy body diseases (LBDs), Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD) are all neurodegenerative diseases classified by the accumulation of alpha‐synuclein in neurons, forming Lewy bodies (LBs). As both the LBDs and the shortening of telomeres are well established with aging it is reasonable to hypothesise some involvement of telomere shortening in the LBDs. There are few studies addressing telomere length changes in the LBDs and as these studies are often conflicting, we aim to rectify this disparity and establish whether there is a relationship between disease diagnosis, LB Braak staging and epigenetic age.