Project Details
Projekt
Patterns of white matter lesions in the brain: impact of air pollution on the variability of lifetime trajectories
Subject Area
Nuclear Medicine, Radiotherapy, Radiobiology
Epidemiology and Medical Biometry/Statistics
Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
Epidemiology and Medical Biometry/Statistics
Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
Term
from 2019 to 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 428218324
Neuroimaging has undergone a paradigmatic change over the past years, from single-center studies with 20 to 40 subjects to large cohorts of hundreds or thousands of subjects. Neuroimaging analysis involves modern machine and deep learning algorithms. Such algorithms are used e.g. for automated extraction of features. While this was for a long time already used for tissue classifications (grey matter, white matter, cerebrospinal fluid), more recent approaches focus on delineation of e.g. white matter lesions frequently observed during aging. Ambient air pollution has been consistently associated with reduced life-expectancy in cohort studies. On a global scale, ambient air pollution has been identified as the major environmental exposure linked to the global burden of disease. Beyond cardiovascular and respiratory disease morbidity and mortality, multiple other outcomes have been implicated to be linked to ambient air pollution exposures, in particular to ambient fine particles. Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution has been associated with cerebrovascular disease, and with increased risk of cognitive decline, cognitive impairment and dementia. A direct neurotoxic effect of ambient particulate matter on brain health may be plausible given that, for example, fine particles and their adsorbed compounds, can reach the brain. However, relatively little work has been done to examine the link between air pollution and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) markers of neurodegeneration and subclinical cerebrovascular disease, and with conflicting results. The German National Cohort (NAKO) provides an unprecedented wealth of data to assess the impact of long-term air pollution at residence in association with the amount and pattern of white matter lesions. The large sample size with partly repeated MRI measurements, detailed residential histories as well as information on important confounders and mediators and accurate exposure modeling will bring us a step further in identifying early stages of clinical cases of dementia promoted by air pollution. Moreover, we will develop an innovative spatial distribution model for white matter lesions in the brain to classify participants into “white matter lesion types” by interpreting correlation patterns of their MRI parameters. Influences of age, sex, BMI as well as hypertension will especially be considered. In our project, we would like to find an answer to the question whether air pollution just intensifies white matter lesions or whether it also has the impact to actually change the distributional pattern of those lesions. As current Health Impact Assessments of the effects of air pollution on population health do so far not include neurological effects it is very well conceivable that the actual health impact goes far beyond just lung and heart when one includes neurological disorders as well. Our project will be able to fill parts of this research gap.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
