Neuroinflammation and Cognitive Impairment

Taking traumatic brain injury (TBI) as an example, millions of people experience TBI each year, with estimated global cases reaching as high as 69 million annually. In the United States alone, over 40 million Americans aged 40 and above suffer from TBI. TBI increases the risk of mortality by 2.2-2.9 times over 30 years and often leads to depression, cognitive impairments, and other neurological and behavioral dysfunctions. Acute illness-induced cognitive impairment further increases susceptibility to chronic neurodegenerative diseases, including epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease. Currently, research suggests that neuroinflammatory mechanisms are the basis for the adverse sequelae of various neurological disorders. Despite the failures of clinical trials involving biomarkers and treatments for cognitive impairments, significant progress in identifying functional neuroimmune and neuroinflammatory mechanisms has rejuvenated hope for their potential as important therapeutic targets. This Research Topic aims to explore the advancements of these novel functional mechanisms in neurologic disorders and hopes to elucidate and intervene in the pathological progression of cognitive impairments caused by various factors.

As part of this topic, we welcome articles that include the following:

*Innate and neural immune mechanisms, including DAMP and complement signaling
*Adaptive immune and neural immune mechanisms
*Gut/neural inflammation axis
*Vascular/neural immune axis
*Interactions between immune cells and brain cells
*Neuroinflammatory biomarkers of immune metabolism and severity and outcomes of cognitive dysfunction
*Gender as a biological variable in the response of neural immune to injury
*Translational human immune mechanisms
*Mechanisms and functions of astrocytes and microglial cells