# PET/MR Correlates of Accelerated Aging in Chronic Epilepsy

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2022 · $625,674

## Abstract

Epilepsy affects more than 2 million Americans and is the fourth most common neurological disorder. While
many patients experience long-term remission, lifelong chronic epilepsy is associated with cognitive,
psychiatric, and somatic comorbidities and a well-characterized neuroimaging burden. Recently, there has
been much interest and concern regarding disorders of cognitive and brain aging in the general population;
however, there has been little systematic study of this issue in aging persons with chronic epilepsy. We
hypothesize that prolonged exposure to epilepsy and its myriad of complications accelerate brain and cognitive
aging. Specific Aim 1: Characterize biomarkers suggestive of accelerated brain aging in chronic focal epilepsy
using advanced PET/MR methods. We hypothesize that PET/MR biomarkers sensitive to brain aging (e.g.,
increased beta amyloid deposition, morphological changes, changes in functional and structural connectivity,
reduced microstructural integrity, reduced metabolism (FDG-PET), and reduced vascular integrity) will be
greater in a cohort of chronic focal epilepsy patients compared to age-matched controls, and thus indicative of
age-accelerated brain aging. Specific Aim 2: Characterize other risk and resilience factors for accelerated
brain and cognitive aging biomarkers in chronic epilepsy. We hypothesize that age-related neuroimaging
biomarkers will predict the presence and severity of cognitive abnormalities in patients with chronic focal
epilepsy. Furthermore, we expect risk factors for poor cognitive outcome, including vascular, socioeconomic,
and lifestyle to be more prevalent in epilepsy and related to age-related cognitive and neuroimaging
biomarkers. Specific Aim 3: Identify the temporal sequence of biomarkers in chronic TLE that are indicative of
brain and cognitive aging allowing us to model the mechanistic cascade that leads to accelerated aging. We
will provide important new mechanistic evidence characterizing the consequences of chronic TLE on brain and
cognitive aging and identify the specific neuroimaging and behavioral profiles, risk and resilience factors that
may be protective (or detrimental) to the aging process.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10388246
- **Project number:** 5R01NS117568-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** Alan Blair McMillan
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $625,674
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-04-15 → 2026-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10388246

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10388246, PET/MR Correlates of Accelerated Aging in Chronic Epilepsy (5R01NS117568-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10388246. Licensed CC0.

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