EVALUATING NEW INTERVENTIONS TO IMPROVE
HUMAN CEREBROVASCULAR FUNCTION
Dr. Molly Bright's lab has just started an NIH-funded two-year clinical trial to test the potential of a novel intervention to improve the brain’s blood supply, thereby mitigating the vascular contributions to neurodegeneration and functional impairment. Acute Intermittent Hypoxia (AIH) is emerging as a powerful therapy to improve overall cardiovascular health and facilitate neural plasticity; however, its impact on human cerebrovascular function is unclear. Hypoxia is known to influence angiogenesis and blood flow generally, and exposures to brief hypoxic stimuli can “precondition” the vasculature of other organs to be more resilient to severe hypoxic threats. This sham-controlled crossover study tests whether a 3-week daily AIH intervention will drive beneficial vascular plasticity in the human brain.
Dr. Bright employs an innovative MRI protocol to assess the beneficial effects of AIH on regional human cerebrovascular physiology, using advanced arterial spin labeling perfusion imaging and prospectively-targeted hypoxic and hypercapnic gas challenges to evoke vasodilatory responses. If this proof-of-concept study is successful, AIH will become an exciting new intervention for facilitating cerebrovascular plasticity and opening up new therapeutic treatment opportunities in the numerous neurological disorders where vascular dysfunction is implicated, including Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, and several forms of dementia. An advanced ASL protocol is used to quantify cerebral blood flow (CBF) throughout the brain at three physiological conditions: during a person’s baseline physiology, during hypoxia, and during hypercapnia. Phase-contrast scans are used to get a single whole-brain CBF measure. A multi Post Label Delay pseudo-continuous ASL sequence is combined with Arterial Blood T1 and Phase- contrast information to accurately model CBF in the different physiological states. Aim 1 tests whether the intervention increased resting CBF, and Aim 2 tests whether the responsiveness of CBF to vasodilatory stressors (e.g., hypoxia or hypercapnia) is enhanced.
- Laleh Rad, PhD
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