Research Project 2: Can Family-Centered Prevention Programming Reduce Neuroimmune Vulnerabilities for Drug Use and Health Risk among African American Adolescents?: A Randomized Prevention Trial

项目总结：研究项目2 建议的研究项目(RP)2和更广泛的P50中心针对的非裔美国人人口 Focus不成比例地暴露于社会逆境，对个人生理造成损害的困难， 神经认知和行为系统。在向成年的过渡过程中，这种代价表现为不断升级。 成瘾行为的比率，包括吸毒和不健康饮食。科学共识正在浮现，即 在童年和青春期暴露于社会逆境和其他压力源可以促进药物的使用 和心脏新陈代谢的脆弱性，通过“皮下”的累积效应，包括 神经免疫网络(NIN)。然而，尽管面临长期的压力，许多非洲裔美国青年和 年轻人没有表现出NIN调节失调和易受药物使用和其他形式成瘾的影响 行为。在我们P30中心赞助的一系列原则证明研究中，我们调查了长期的 在11岁时参加非洲裔美国人家庭(SAAF)计划对个人的影响 他们正在过渡到成年期(19-25岁)。从参与中获得的一些额外好处成为 显然，其中许多涉及修改链接到NIN框架中指定的那些进程的进程(即， 前额-边缘连通性、边缘区域结构、炎症和心脏代谢健康)。虽然 挑衅性的发现，关于炎症和神经活动的数据是在临时性收集的，这些发现必须 在进行更严格的研究之前，被认为是初步的。拟议的RP2旨在满足 这需要通过在#年对SAAF计划(N=300个低收入家庭)进行随机对照试验来实现 哪些年轻人将参加功能磁共振成像评估和抽血以索引NIN相关的神经系统和 外周炎症在基线水平和长期随访(2年)。来自父母的心理社会措施 青年也将在基线、1年和2年的随访中进行。我们的具体目标是测试 以下假设：(1)参加SAAF对NIN相关风险标记物变化的影响 (为威胁、奖励和执行控制以及外周炎症提供服务的神经电路) 年；(2)保护性养育在将SAAF参与与NIN相关风险联系起来方面的中介作用 (3)SAAF对情绪相关成瘾行为易感性改变的影响 监管、高风险决策、早期药物使用、不健康饮食和心脏代谢风险 标志物；以及(4)将SAAF与成瘾行为脆弱性联系起来的中介链 养育子女和NIN相关的风险标记。SAAF对硝酸甘油的实验效果检验 易损性因素与预测试和后续功能磁共振成像和炎症评估是一个戏剧性的步骤 我们希望RP2将为未来的药物研究提供一个模板 使用预防计划。

PROJECT SUMMARY: Research Project 2 The African American populations on whom the proposed Research Project (RP) 2 and broader P50 Center focus are disproportionately exposed to social adversities, hardships that take a toll on individuals’ biological, neurocognitive, and behavioral systems. During the transition to adulthood, this toll manifests in escalating rates of addictive behavior, including drug use and unhealthy eating. A scientific consensus is emerging that exposure to social adversity and other stressors during childhood and adolescence can promote both drug use and cardiometabolic vulnerabilities through cumulative effects “under the skin”, including dysregulation of the neuroimmune network (NIN). Despite exposure to chronic stress, however, many African American youth and young adults do not evince NIN dysregulation and vulnerability to drug use and other forms of addictive behavior. In a series of proof-of-principle studies sponsored by our P30 Center, we investigated the long-term effects of participation at age 11 in the Strong African American Families (SAAF) program on individuals when they were transitioning to adulthood (ages 19-25). A number of additional benefits from participation became apparent, many of which involved modifying processes linked to those specified in the NIN framework (i.e., prefrontal-limbic connectivity, limbic region structures, inflammation, and cardiometabolic health). Although provocative findings, data on inflammation and neural activity were collected post hoc, and these findings must be regarded as preliminary until a more rigorous study is performed. The proposed RP2 is designed to meet this need by conducting a randomized controlled trial of the SAAF program (N = 300 low-income families) in which youth will participate in an fMRI assessment and blood draw to index NIN-related neural systems and peripheral inflammation at baseline and a long-term follow-up (2 years). Psychosocial measures from parents and youth will also be conducted at baseline, 1-year, and 2-year follow-up. Our specific aims are to test hypotheses regarding: (1) the influence of participation in SAAF on change in NIN-associated risk markers (neural circuitry subserving threat, reward, and executive control, as well as peripheral inflammation) across 2 years; (2) the mediating role of protective parenting in linking SAAF participation to NIN-associated risk markers; (3) the influence of SAAF on change in addictive behavior vulnerabilities associated with emotion regulation, risky decision making, early-onset substance use, unhealthy eating, and cardiometabolic risk markers; and (4) the mediational chain linking SAAF to addictive behavior vulnerabilities via changes in parenting and NIN-associated risk markers. Testing the experimental effects of SAAF on NIN-specified vulnerability factors with pretest and follow-up fMRI and inflammation assessments represents a dramatic step forward in prevention science, and we hope that RP2 will provide a template for future investigations of drug use prevention programs.