Dr. David Zald Receives NIAAA R21 Grant to Investigate Blood-Brain Barrier Dysfunction in Chronic Alcohol Use Disorder

Dr. David Zald, Director of the Center for Advanced Human Brain Imaging Research (CAHBIR) at the Rutgers Brain Health Institute (BHI) and Henry Rutgers Term Professor of Psychiatry at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, has been awarded an R21 grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) for his project “Blood-Brain Barrier Dysfunction in Chronic Alcohol Use Disorder.”

Chronic alcohol use disorder (AUD) is associated with structural brain damage and cognitive deficits that persist even after detoxification. Although preclinical research suggests that deterioration of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) may be a key mechanism underlying these effects, there has been little direct evidence in humans. Dr. Zald will use a cutting-edge MRI technique—motion-corrected diffusion-weighted pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (MCDW-pCASL)—to noninvasively measure water exchange across the BBB, providing a sensitive indicator of BBB integrity without contrast agents.

The study will scan 30 recently detoxified individuals with severe chronic AUD and 30 age- and sex-matched controls to map BBB alterations, link them to drinking history, and determine their association with grey matter, white matter microstructure, and cognitive performance. Findings from this research will lay the groundwork for larger studies on the evolution and impact of BBB alterations in AUD and could ultimately help develop precision medicine tools to identify patients who may benefit from BBB-targeted interventions and track their treatment response.

Learn more: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/yiuRGmusZ0isLFsndMDisg/project-details/11229948