Diffusion imaging - Montagne Lab
Cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD) is the most common cause of vascular cognitive impairment and also present in pre-symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease. It is characterised by cerebrovascular dysfunction, manifesting as structural and functional changes in the brain vasculature and parenchyma, including vessel wall thickening, weakening, and/or narrowing, as well as cerebral blood flow dysregulation and blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption.
The underlying pathophysiology of cSVD remains poorly understood, however mounting evidence suggests an important role of the BBB in driving early cSVD pathology. In particular, brain endothelial cells, which form the BBB alongside other cells of the neurogliovascular unit, are believed to be key players at initiating and aggravating brain damage. Understanding the causes and downstream consequences associated with endothelial and related vascular cell dysfunction is paramount, encouraged by recent positive trials testing endothelial-stabilising drugs.
The Vascular thematic network focus on:
- Decoding cell-cell interactions between endothelial cells and neighbouring pericytes, astrocytes, microglia, fibroblasts, oligodendrocytes and neurons
- Understanding the mechanisms behind vascular and BBB dysfunction during ageing and disease - with a strong focus on endothelial cells
- Vascular contributions to neurodegeneration and dementia in patient cohorts
- Bidirectional translation between preclinical and clinical studies
Labs
Read our publication!
In 2022, the UK DRI convened a workshop with Dementia’s Platform UK, bringing together key clinical and pre-clinical experts from diverse, multidisciplinary, diverse (sex, geography and career stage), cross-institute groups working on vascular cognitive impairment. The published paper is a summary of the discussions that took place at this workshop, addressing important points on vascular models, reproducibility, clinical features of vascular cognitive impairment and corresponding assessments in models, human pathology, bioinformatics approaches, and data sharing.
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