Cailin Conner

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A recent study published in Brain Communications suggests that asthma speeds up alterations in the microstructure of white and gray matter, which are linked to the aging process and the development of neuropathology. Consequently, these changes are connected to a swifter cognitive decline.
“Using a case-control design, we investigated the influence of asthma, a highly prevalent chronic inflammatory disease of the airways, on brain health,” the authors wrote. The study recruited participants from the Wisconsin Alzheimer&#8217;s Disease Research Center, a sample enriched for parental history of Alzheimer&#8217;s disease.
The researchers aimed to assess the impact of asthma on brain microstructure, neuroinflammation, and cognitive decline while accounting for other factors such as age, cardiovascular risk, and genetic predisposition.
Thirty-one asthma patients and 186 non-asthma controls aged 45-90 were included in the study. The researchers used advanced imaging techniques to evaluate white and gray matter microstructure, including multi-shell diffusion-weighted imaging scans and the 3-compartment neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging model.
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers were also analyzed to examine evidence of Alzheimer&#8217;s disease pathology, glial activation, neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration. Cognitive changes over time were assessed using a preclinical Alzheimer cognitive composite.
The results revealed several significant associations between asthma and brain health. According to their results, “Relative to controls, greater Alzheimer’s disease pathology (lower amyloid-β42/amyloid-β40, higher phosphorylated-tau-181) and synaptic degeneration (neurogranin) biomarker concentrations were associated with more adverse white matter metrics (e.g. lower neurite density, higher mean diffusivity) in patients with asthma.”
Higher concentrations of the pleiotropic cytokine IL-6 and the glial marker S100B were associated with healthier white matter metrics in asthma patients, suggesting a potential protective role against neurodegeneration. These associations were not observed in the control group, indicating a unique interaction between asthma-related inflammation and brain health.
In asthmatic patients, there was an association between the deterioration of white and gray matter microstructure and an accelerated cognitive decline compared with control subjects. Finally, researchers observed accelerated adverse effects of aging on white matter integrity in individuals with asthma, highlighting the detrimental impact of chronic systemic inflammation on brain microstructure.
To conclude, the authors stated, “Considering the high prevalence of asthma, the racial and economic disparities in asthma morbidity, and the lifelong nature of this disease, concerted efforts toward improvement in asthma management, as well as identification and targeting of key signaling pathways involved in the relationships reported here would improve both lung and brain health and has the potential to make a meaningful impact on the public health burden and societal costs associated with dementia.”
Source: <a href="https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/article/5/3/fcad180/7197010?login=false" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brain Communications</a>

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Accelerated Microstructural Changes and Cognitive Decline in Asthmatic Patients Identified

Asthma

Asthma accelerates white and gray matter microstructural changes associated with aging and neurodegeneration, leading to more rapid cognitive decline.

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