STARRRS: an open rat resource for the study of reserve and resilience against Alzheimer's disease

National Institute On Aging

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Progress on the STARRRS project has focused on gathering community input, recruitment and staffing, acquiring equipment and establishing infrastructure, and pilot testing. Major launch efforts include facility renovation and equipment installation and optimization for a state-of-the-art, research-dedicated neuroimaging facility. Imaging equipment includes the late generation high-field Bruker BioSpec 9.4T/20 scanner with Cryoprobe array, providing sensitivity for documenting resting state functional connectivity in the rat brain. Interruption of project activities associated with the COVID-19 pandemic notwithstanding, we have also moved forward with detailed planning to stand up a robust Data Management and Sharing pipeline. The concept in development includes establishing a Biospecimen Allocation Review Committee, a Biospecimen Resource and Distribution Center, and a Coordination Center and Digital Data Resource, together with a public facing informational website. Input is actively gathered from intramural and extramural stakeholders on various aspects of STARRRS project development, including a Behavior Subgroup, Data Management & Sharing Subgroup, and Animal and Data Sharing Working Groups of the Reserve and Resilience Collaboratory. A review of key consensus issues in the longitudinal analysis of cognitive reserve and resilience in animal models has been published and will usefully inform the implemented design of phenotyping in the STARRRS program (McQuail et al., 2021). The project also supports related efforts to test and validate interventions for promoting successful neurocognitive aging, with an eye toward eventual longitudinal implementation prior to the onset of decline. In a recently reported study of this sort, for example, we found that the memory effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in aged subjects are dictated by the pre-treatment status of cognitive function. The results emphasize the need for individualized approaches toward the safe and effective application of non-invasive brain stimulation for healthy brain and cognitive aging.