Neurovascular Uncoupling and Cognitive Impairments of Long COVID in Aging

项目摘要/摘要 新冠肺炎大流行正在对全球公共卫生、社会和经济产生破坏性影响。 新出现的数据表明，相当大比例的患者从冠状病毒的急性期康复 疾病2019(新冠肺炎)正在遭受一系列持续性症状，通常是在感染后发作，通常 被称为“长冠状病毒病”，严重影响了这些患者的日常功能和生活质量。而当 老年人特别容易患上这种疾病，人们越来越关注神经系统和 新冠肺炎增龄的神经退行性后遗症。而越来越多的证据表明，新冠肺炎往往 通过脑内微血管损伤和缺氧导致神经症状，我们假设 神经血管解偶联是认知功能障碍的主要神经生理机制 随着年龄的增长，COVID越来越长。而脑血流量(CBF)可以用动脉自旋标记(ASL)来估计。 灌注磁共振，即基于BOLD(血氧水平依赖)测量的功能磁共振(FMRI) 间接的神经元活动。最近，我们开发了一种创新的多波段和多回声(MBME) BOLD/ASL磁共振序列，可同时测量血流动力学反应功能和 CBF检测潜在的神经血管解偶联。这项概念验证研究将调查老年患者。 (n=40)12个月后从轻度新冠肺炎康复，并在感染后出现持续性认知症状 新冠肺炎的年龄、性别和教育程度与健康对照组(HC)参与者(n=40)匹配。 使用先进的神经成像，我们将确定任务诱发的测量之间的关系 衰老中长期COVID的神经血管解偶联模式和长期认知损害(目标1)， 确定静息状态动态神经血管解偶联与脑网络功能的关系 衰老中长期COVID的改变和持续性认知损害(目标2)，并评估它们之间的关系 内源性大麻素信号系统(ECS)测量和神经血管解偶联模式与认知 衰老中长COVID的损害(目标3)。这项工作具有很高的科学性和

Project Summary/Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating impact on public health, societies, and economies worldwide. Emerging data indicate that a substantial proportion of patients recovered from the acute stages of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are suffering a constellation of persistent symptoms with onset after infection, often referred to as "Long COVID", which severely affect the daily function and quality of life of those patients. While aged individuals are particularly vulnerable to this disease, there is growing concern about neurological and neurodegenerative sequelae of COVID-19 in aging. While increasing evidence shows that COVID-19 often causes neurological symptoms via microvascular injuries and hypoxia in the brain, we hypothesize that neurovascular uncoupling is the primary neurophysiological mechanism underlying the cognitive impairments of Long COVID in aging. Whereas cerebral blood flow (CBF) can be estimated using the arterial spin labeling (ASL) perfusion MRI, the functional MRI (fMRI) based on the BOLD (Blood-oxygen-level-dependent) measures neuronal activity indirectly. Recently, we have developed an innovative multiband and multi-echo (MBME) BOLD/ASL MRI sequence that enables simultaneous measurement of hemodynamic response function and CBF to detect potential neurovascular uncoupling. This proof-of-concept study will investigate elderly patients (n=40) at 12+ months recovered from mild COVID-19 with persistent cognitive symptoms onset after contracting COVID-19, in comparison with age, gender and education matched health control (HC) participants (n=40). Using advanced neuroimaging, we will determine the relationships between measures of task-evoked neurovascular uncoupling patterns and long-lasting cognitive impairments of Long COVID in aging (Aim 1), determine the relationships of resting-state dynamic neurovascular uncoupling and brain network function alterations and persistent cognitive impairments of Long COVID in aging (Aim 2), and evaluate the associations of endocannabinoid signaling system (ECS) measures and neurovascular uncoupling patterns and cognitive impairments of Long COVID in aging (Aim 3). This work has high scientific and