Impact of COVID-19 on the Onset and Progression of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias: A Roadmap for Future Research.

COVID-19 causes lasting neurological symptoms in some survivors. Like other infections, COVID-19 may increase risk of cognitive impairment. This perspective highlights four knowledge gaps about COVID-19 that need to be filled to avoid this possible health issue. The first is the need to identify the COVID-19 symptoms, genetic polymorphisms and treatment decisions associated with risk of cognitive impairment. The second is the absence of model systems in which to test hypotheses relating infection to cognition. The third is the need for consortia for studying both existing and new longitudinal cohorts in which to monitor long term consequences of COVID-19 infection. A final knowledge gap discussed is the impact of the isolation and lack of social services brought about by quarantine/lockdowns on people living with dementia and their caregivers. Research into these areas may lead to interventions that reduce the overall risk of cognitive decline for COVID-19 survivors

Bioenergetic and vascular predictors of potential super-ager and cognitive decline trajectories—a UK Biobank Random Forest classification study

Aging has often been characterized by progressive cognitive decline in memory and especially executive function. Yet some adults, aged 80 years or older, are “super-agers” that exhibit cognitive performance like younger adults. It is unknown if there are adults in mid-life with similar superior cognitive performance (“positive-aging”) versus cognitive decline over time and if there are blood biomarkers that can distinguish between these groups. Among 1303 participants in UK Biobank, latent growth curve models classified participants into different cognitive groups based on longitudinal fluid intelligence (FI) scores over 7–9 years. Random Forest (RF) classification was then used to predict cognitive trajectory types using longitudinal predictors including demographic, vascular, bioenergetic, and immune factors. Feature ranking importance and performance metrics of the model were reported. Despite model complexity, we achieved a precision of 77% when determining who would be in the “positive-aging” group (n = 563) vs. cognitive decline group (n = 380). Among the top fifteen features, an equal number were related to either vascular health or cellular bioenergetics but not demographics like age, sex, or socioeconomic status. Sensitivity analyses showed worse model results when combining a cognitive maintainer group (n = 360) with the positive-aging or cognitive decline group. Our results suggest that optimal cognitive aging may not be related to age per se but biological factors that may be amenable to lifestyle or pharmacological changes.This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at DOI: 10.1007/s11357-022-00657-6. Copyright 2021 The Author(s). Posted with permission

FIG. 13 in Geographical variation of Rhinolophus affinis (Chiroptera: Rhinolophidae) in the Sundaic subregion of Southeast Asia, including the Malay Peninsula, Borneo and Sumatra

FIG. 13. PCA of nine external and cranial characters of R. affinis specimens from southern Malay Peninsula (green shaded Zone A in Fig. 1) (black squares) and northern Malay Peninsula (orange shaded Zone B in Fig. 1) (grey circles)Published as part of <i>Ith, Saveng, Bumrungsri, Sara, Thomas, Nikky M., Bates, Paul J. J., Willette, Demian A., Khan, Faisal Ali Anwarali, Wonglapsuwan, Monwadee, Soisook, Pipat & Maryanto, Ibnu, 2016, Geographical variation of Rhinolophus affinis (Chiroptera: Rhinolophidae) in the Sundaic subregion of Southeast Asia, including the Malay Peninsula, Borneo and Sumatra, pp. 141-161 in Acta Chiropterologica 18 (1)</i> on page 159, DOI: 10.3161/15081109ACC2016.18.1.006, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/10120981">http://zenodo.org/record/10120981</a&gt