How does alzheimer’s disease, atherosclerosis and comorbid alzheimer’s disease and atherosclerosis impact neurovascular function?

The brain is an energy hungry organ, consuming approximately 20% of the body’s energy supply (Clark & Sokoloff 1999). Due to its high energy demands the brain has developed a critical mechanism termed neurovascular coupling (NVC). NVC is the relationship between neuronal activity and a subsequent increase in blood flow to the same brain region. This mechanism is suggested to be impaired in many disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (Kisler et al., 2017). Additionally, approximately 90% of individuals living with dementia have a comorbidity (Browne et al., 2017), with some of the most common comorbidities being cardiovascular disease (Tini et al., 2020) and type 2 diabetes (Santiago et al., 2021). Therefore, we wanted to investigate neurovascular function in AD and comorbid mixed models of AD and atherosclerosis.