Toward Healthy Aging in Adults with Autism: A Longitudinal Clinical and Multimodal Brain Imaging Study

项目总结/摘要 自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）是一种终身障碍，其后果贯穿整个成年期。最近 人口健康研究表明，老年自闭症成年人的预期寿命较短， 身心健康问题。然而，很少有研究关注 健康和健康与ASD中的老龄化以及可能导致更好或更坏结果的因素。在这 自闭症卓越中心（ACE）网络项目，了解自闭症的跨学科科学-衰老 （ISLA-A）网络将部署一个协调、优化和创新的协议，以调查老化的影响 这是迄今为止对自闭症成年人进行的最大规模的前瞻性纵向队列研究之一。的目标 ISLA-A中心是1）建立和跟踪一个大型的自闭症男性和女性成年人，兄弟姐妹和年龄- 和性别匹配的非自闭症成年人进行全面协调的研究协议，以调查多个 老化的模态方面，包括临床严重程度，身心健康，认知老化， 大脑结构和功能，以及生物老化的表观遗传措施; 2）表征组和 孤独症严重程度、健康、健康和大脑指标随年龄的变化; 3） 调查临床、健康和脑成像测量之间的关系;以及4）调查是否 使用新的衰老表观遗传学测量方法，自闭症患者的生物衰老加速。的首要目标 ISLA-A网络旨在创建一个全面、协调和高维的数据集， 自闭症的衰老轨迹，可用于调查早期或加速衰老是否是一个标志， 自闭症的特征，以及自闭症的衰老如何影响健康和大脑结果。包括兄弟姐妹， 与自闭症成人群体共享遗传学，将有助于确定与衰老相关的自闭症特异性因素， 结果。ISLA-A研究结果将确定预测自闭症衰老结果的候选因素 并将指导制定干预措施和服务，以改善成果。这个新的大型多模式， 纵向的，可推广的数据集将与自闭症研究社区共享， 问题研究总的来说，ISLA-A网络研究将产生丰富的、影响力大的资源， 孤独症中的衰老，最终目标是改善孤独症成年人的健康和支持。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong disorder that has consequences throughout adulthood. Recent population health studies indicate that aging autistic adults have shorter life expectancy and increased rates of physical and mental health problems. However, there is a paucity of studies that have focused on the progression of health and wellness with aging in ASD and factors that can contribute to better or worse outcomes. In this Autism Center of Excellence (ACE) Network project, the Interdisciplinary Science to Learn about Autism – Aging (ISLA-A) Network will deploy a harmonized, optimized, and innovative protocol to investigate the effects of aging in autism in one of the largest prospective longitudinal cohort studies of autistic adults to date. The aims of the ISLA-A center are 1) to establish and follow a large cohort of autistic male and female adults, siblings and age- and sex- matched non-autistic adults with a comprehensive harmonized research protocol to investigate multi- modal aspects of aging, including measures of clinical severity, physical and mental health, cognitive aging, brain structure and function, and epigenetic measures of biological aging; 2) to characterize both group and individual age-related changes in autism severity, health, wellness and brain measures with aging; 3) to investigate the relationships between clinical, health, and brain imaging measures; and 4) to investigate whether biological aging is accelerated in autism using new epigenetic measures of aging. The overarching goal of the ISLA-A Network is to create a comprehensive, harmonized, and high-dimensional dataset that will characterize trajectories of aging in autism that may be used to investigate whether early or accelerated aging is a hallmark feature of autism, and how aging in autism influences health and brain outcomes. The inclusion of siblings, who share genetics with the autistic adult cohort, will help to identify autism-specific factors related to aging and outcomes. The ISLA-A study results will identify candidate factors that are predictive to autism aging outcomes and will guide the development of interventions and services to improve outcomes. This new large, multi-modal, longitudinal, and generalizable dataset will be shared with the autism research community for independent studies. Overall, the ISLA-A Network study will generate a rich, high-impact resource for better understanding of aging in autism, with the ultimate goal of improving the health and support of autistic adults.