GeroScience - Editor's pick: Stefano Tarantini
Dr. Stefano Tarantini, University of Oklahoma Health Science Center, USA
Areas of expertise:
Vascular aging, VCID, Neurovascular coupling, Microbleeds, Nutritional anti-aging interventions, Senolytics therapies.
Dr. Stefano Tarantini, Deputy Editor of GeroScience, is an Assistant Professor at University of Oklahoma HSC. Dr. Tarantini's research interests are vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID), mechanisms of vascular aging, age-related endothelial dysfunction, neurovascular coupling, intra-cerebral microhemorrhages (microbleeds), cerebrovascular reactivity, senolytics therapies and nutritional anti-aging interventions.
Editor's Pick: Free to read
Montagne, A., Barnes, S.R., Nation, D.A. et al. Imaging subtle leaks in the blood–brain barrier in the aging human brain: potential pitfalls, challenges, and possible solutions. GeroScience 44, 1339–1351 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-022-00571-x (this opens in a new tab) (FREE access until December 21st, 2023)
“This paper from the Zlokovic group outlines an emerging area of research concerning the detection of subtle blood-brain barrier (BBB) leaks using dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) with gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCA). These leaks are associated with normal aging and a variety of neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment, cerebral small vessel disease (SVD), among others. The paper acknowledges the technical challenges posed by the subtle nature of these leaks, as the DCE-MRI technique is pushed towards its lower limits of detectability. This issue is compounded by the lack of standardized protocols across different MR scanners, which hinders the reliability and reproducibility of findings. Despite these challenges, this insightful paper underscores the significance of detecting subtle BBB leaks due to their potential contribution to the pathophysiology of cognitive impairment and dementia. It advocates for efforts to enhance the sensitivity, reliability, and reproducibility of DCE-MRI in detecting BBB leaks, which may necessitate scanning a larger number of participants across different clinical sites with varying MR scanners. The paper suggests new strategies to address these challenges by proposing approaches to normalize and harmonize DCE data between different scanners. The recommendations provided for specific regions for the tracer’s vascular input function and DCE data processing are aimed at improving the accuracy and reliability of detecting BBB leaks, which is crucial for advancing research in neurovascular and neurodegenerative conditions, and in understanding the mechanisms of aging in the human brain.”
Dr. Stefano Tarantini