# Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity (CTRA) and COVID-19: Role of Pre-existing Neighborhood Characteristics and Cognitive Impairment

> **NIH NIH P30** · WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2020 · $316,108

## Abstract

Bateman et al., NOT-AG-20-022 2020
PROJECT SUMMARY
The proposed administrative supplement will fund an investigation of the impact of COVID-19 on participants of
the Wake Forest Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC). We will determine the impact of COVID-19
related social distancing and stress on individuals with cognitive impairment as compared to older adults with
normal cognition in the WF ADRC center cohort. The proposed supplement will be conducted in the Clinical
Core cohort of the ADRC at Wake Forest School of Medicine, and falls within the general scope of the ADRC
of identifying factors that modulate cognitive decline in aging and Alzheimer’s disease, and synergizes with our
center’s focus on health disparities by utilizing a metric of neighborhood disadvantage. The proposal is based
on evidence that loneliness and stress are associated with cognitive decline and are expected to be more
prevalent as a result of social distancing public health measures for the prevention of COVID-19 spread.
Several prior studies have shown that loneliness is associated with chronic stress in older adults, and that
loneliness is further associated with cognitive decline, with some suggestion of a bidirectional relationship.
Loneliness has been shown to be affected by neighborhood variables as well. Our proposed supplement will
examine the impact of COVID-19 on loneliness and stress, and determine whether participants with pre-
pandemic cognitive impairment, or those living in more deprived neighborhoods, are more vulnerable to the
impact. There are two parts to our proposed study: a telephone-based questionnaire visit and dried blood spot
collection for transcriptional analysis. We will collected two questionnaires focused on the impact of COVID-19,
as well as questionnaires to assess perceived stress, loneliness, coping strategies, and psychological well-
being. Each participant will be geocoded and their area deprivation index will be obtained based on publically-
available data. A new collaborative relationship has been established with the UCLA Social Genomics Core
which will perform the RNA extraction and analysis.
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## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10174269
- **Project number:** 3P30AG049638-05S2
- **Recipient organization:** WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** James R. Bateman
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $316,108
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2016-09-01 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10174269

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10174269, Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity (CTRA) and COVID-19: Role of Pre-existing Neighborhood Characteristics and Cognitive Impairment (3P30AG049638-05S2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10174269. Licensed CC0.

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