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Dr. Colm Cunningham

Associate Professor - Neuroscience (Biochemistry)
Associate Professor - Neuroscience (Trinity Inst. of Neurosciences (TCIN))
      
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Dr. Colm Cunningham

Associate Professor - Neuroscience (Biochemistry)

 Colm.Cunningham@tcd.ie

 3531896 3964

Associate Professor - Neuroscience (Trinity Inst. of Neurosciences (TCIN))


  Ageing, Older People and Healthcare   Aging/Gerontology   Alzheimer's Disease   Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)   Animal Models   Brain   Dementia   Dementia/ Alzheimer's Disease   Depression   Emotional/Mental Health--Geriatric   Inflammation   Neurodegeneration   Neurodegenerative Diseases/Disorders   Neurological Disorders   Parkinson's Disease   Senile Dementia   Stress
Project Title
 Towards and understanding of infection-induced delirium
From
23/10/06
To
22/10/10
Summary
Delirium is a transient disorder of orientation and cognition that is highly prevalent in the elderly population admitted to or resident in hospital (10-30%). The highest risk factors for episodes of delirium are ageing and dementia and these episodes are most commonly triggered by infection, injury or surgery. Thus, while the aetiology of delirium is unknown, it is clearly multi-factorial and may result from the interaction of prior pathology and superimposed inflammatory insults. We have shown that prion-diseased mice show cognitive impairments typical of dementia and show neurodegeneration and associated CNS inflammation in neural pathways that underlie cognitive processes. These mice also show exaggerated acute sickness behaviour responses to systemic inflammatory challenges and these are underpinned by acutely raised cytokines in the hippocampus. We hypothesise that prior CNS inflammation, such as that induced by neurodegeneration, is acutely exacerbated by systemic inflammation and precipitates episodes of delirium. In the current proposal we aim to establish a mouse model of infection-induced delirium. We will investigate whether systemic inflammatory insults have more severe cognitive consequences in animals with prior CNS inflammation than in normal animals. We will investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms of delirium using the model developed during this work.
Funding Agency
The Wellcome Trust
Programme
Research Career Development Fellowship
Project Type
Fellowship in Basic Biomedical Science
Person Months
48
Project Title
 Reconciling Cholinergic and inflammatory hypotheses of delirium: acute and lasting effects of systemic inflammation on chronic neurodegeneration
From
2010
To
2017
Summary
1) Reconciling inflammatory and cholinergic mechanisms of delirium. I propose that prior pathology in the basal forebrain cholinergic nuclei (BFCN) predisposes individuals to systemic inflammation-induced acute cognitive impairments. I will produce selective and limited lesions of the BFCN, with p75NTR-saporin that do not cause significant cognitive impairment. I predict that superimposed systemic inflammation will then induce acute cholinergic dysfunction specifically in lesioned animals. This will be a valuable model system with which to study aspects of cholinergic hypofunction-associated delirium and I will study inflammatory, behavioural and neurochemical aspects of this system. 2) Mechanisms of long-term decline. Using both the "ME7+systemic inflammation" and p75-saporin models of delirium during dementia I will study potential mechanisms of acute impairments and long-term decline resulting from inflammatory challenges. In so doing I will examine the idea that the acute cognitive dysfunction and the subsequent long-term cognitive impairment associated with delirium are two distinct processes: an acute neurochemical change and an acute pathological change that is superimposed on the existing pathological state. 3) Microglial priming. I predict that primed microglia have a role in both acute and long-term consequences of acute inflammatory episodes. I propose that priming of these CNS macrophages consists of hyper-responsiveness to a variety of inflammatory stimuli and I will investigate this with respect to receptor expression, cytosolic levels of key transcription factors and nuclear localization of these in response to inflammatory stimulation.
Funding Agency
Wellcome Trust
Programme
Senior Research Fellowship
Project Type
Fellowship in Basic Biomedical Science
Person Months
60
Project Title
 Neuroinflammatory and cognitive consequences of losing cholinergic anti-inflammatory tone in the forebrain
From
2016
To
2021
Summary
Systemic inflammation can trigger acute cognitive dysfunction (including delirium) as well as accelerating long-term cognitive decline (including dementia) and this occurs with high prevalence in the aging population. It is accepted that prior neurodegeneration increases the risk of these adverse health outcomes but this is poorly understood and we now propose that loss of anti-inflammatory acetylcholinergic tone predisposes to exaggerated brain inflammatory responses to systemic inflammatory insults, resulting in excessive inflammatory mediator release and contributing to acute cognitive dysfunction and lasting brain injury. In the current proposal we will use p75NTR-saporin to produce partial and selective degeneration of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons, and will induce systemic inflammation with bacterial endotoxin or polymicrobial sepsis, in order to study the influence of pre-existing hypocholinergia on acute illness-induced brain inflammation, changes in brain energy metabolism and neurophysiology (time-synchronized to behaviour) and new brain injury leading to long-term cognitive decline.
Funding Agency
National Institutes of Health (USA)
Programme
R01
Project Type
R01
Person Months
10
Project Title
 Fever & the brain in autism: temperature vs. inflammatory effects
From
April 2017
To
March 2019
Summary
We will investigate the hypothesis that fever can ameliorate symptoms of autism, and explore possible mechanisms in mouse models. We will: 1) Dissociate fever and inflammation (i.e. induce whole body hyperthermia in the absence of systemic inflammation and, in different animals, induce systemic inflammation not inducing fever). Compare inflammation and fever for differential patterns of brain activation using immediate early gene cFOS expression in (amygdala, frontal cortex, hippocampus, hypothalamus, striatum, nucleus accumbens, locus ceruleus and others). Compare Inflammation and fever for their effects on brain metabolism (brain oxygen, glucose and lactate levels measured in vivo, in real-time). 2) Assess the impact of these different paradigms on behavioral measures (both positive and negative symptoms), relevant to autism spectrum disorders in 3 model systems with complementary advantages a.C58/J: Natural mutant showing both positive and negative symptoms relevant to ASD (#000669). b.B6.129-Shank3tm2Gfng/J (# 017688; also known as Shank3B-) c.Tsc+/-: B6;129S4-Tsc2tm1Djk/J (#004686) 3) We will pursue preliminary evidence for: Involvement of specific inflammatory pathways (PGE2, IL-1β; TNF) and of altered autophagy
Funding Agency
SIMONS FOUNDATION
Programme
Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative
Project Type
Project grant
Person Months
4
Project Title
 The impact of acute systemic inflammation upon CSF and blood biomarkers of brain inflammation and injury in dementia: a study in acute hip fracture and memory clinic patients
From
Nov 2016
To
Nov 2018
Summary
We propose that acute inflammatory insults, such as trauma and surgery, cause new brain injury in older adults. The current project aims to identify the inflammatory biomarkers predictive of such injury and the neuronal and synaptic biomarkers that are demonstrative of such brain injury. We aim to collect cerebrospinal fluid and blood from patients who experience hip fractures (and who have spinal anaesthesia to facilitate hip-fracture repair surgery) in order to sample the circulating and brain levels of inflammatory mediators and of markers of neuronal damage. We will then assess cognitive decline and sample blood at 1, 3 and 6 months to assess the progression of cognitive decline in those who experienced this inflammatory trauma.. We predict that the severity of acute brain inflammation and the levels of specific neuronal injury markers will predict the rate of cognitive decline in the proceeding 6 months.
Funding Agency
Alzheimer's Research UK
Programme
Major research Grants
Project Type
Project grant to investigate biomarkers of inflammation and brain injury
Person Months
2

Details Date
As a member of the Association Executive I have contributed to discussions leading to a consensus adopted by the European Delirium Association and the American Delirium Society (BMC Medicine 201412:141 DOI: 10.1186/s12916-014-0141-2) that with respect to "The DSM-5 criteria, level of arousal and delirium diagnosis: inclusiveness is safer". I was also part of an international panel of experts gathered to write a definitive report on the "Intensive Care Medicine Research Agenda on Delirium" for publication in INTENSIVE CARE MEDICINE. I am an editorial board member of 2 journals: Brain Behavior and Immunity. Journal of Neuroinflammation.
Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
Italian Basic Basic Basic
Details Date From Date To
Society for Neuroscience 2005 2015
European Delirium Association 2008 2017
Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society 2009 2014
Heneka, Michael T. and van der Flier, Wiesje M. and Jessen, Frank and Hoozemanns, Jeroen and Thal, Dietmar Rudolf and Boche, Delphine and Brosseron, Frederic and Teunissen, Charlotte and Zetterberg, Henrik and Jacobs, Andreas H. and Edison, Paul and Ramirez, Alfredo and Cruchaga, Carlos and Lambert, Jean-Charles and Laza, Agustin Ruiz and Sanchez-Mut, Jose Vicente and Fischer, Andre and Castro-Gomez, Sergio and Stein, Thor D. and Kleineidam, Luca and Wagner, Michael and Neher, Jonas J. and Cunningham, Colm and Singhrao, Sim K. and Prinz, Marco and Glass, Christopher K. and Schlachetzki, Johannes C. M. and Butovsky, Oleg and Kleemann, Kilian and De Jaeger, Philip L. and Scheiblich, Hannah and Brown, Guy C. and Landreth, Gary and Moutinho, Miguel and Grutzendler, Jaime and Gomez-Nicola, Diego and McManus, Róisín M. and Andreasson, Katrin and Ising, Christina and Karabag, Deniz and Baker, Darren J. and Liddelow, Shane A. and Verkhratsky, Alexei and Tansey, Malu and Monsonego, Alon and Aigner, Ludwig and Dorothée, Guillaume and Nave, Klaus-Armin and Simons, Mikael and Constantin, Gabriela and Rosenzweig, Neta and Pascual, Alberto and Petzold, Gabor C. and Kipnis, Jonathan and Venegas, Carmen and Colonna, Marco and Walter, Jochen and Tenner, Andrea J. and O†Banion, M. Kerry and Steinert, Joern R. and Feinstein, Douglas L. and Sastre, Magdalena and Bhaskar, Kiran and Hong, Soyon and Schafer, Dorothy P. and Golde, Todd and Ransohoff, Richard M. and Morgan, David and Breitner, John and Mancuso, Renzo and Riechers, Sean-Patrick, Neuroinflammation in Alzheimer disease, Nature Reviews Immunology, 25, (5), 2025, p321 â€" 352 , Notes: [Cited by: 67], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Wood, Greta K. and Sargent, Brendan F. and Ahmad, Zain-Ul-Abideen and Tharmaratnam, Kukatharmini and Dunai, Cordelia and Egbe, Franklyn N. and Martin, Naomi H. and Facer, Bethany and Pendered, Sophie L. and Rogers, Henry C. and HÃŒbel, Christopher and van Wamelen, Daniel J. and Bethlehem, Richard A. I. and Giunchiglia, Valentina and Hellyer, Peter J. and Trender, William and Kalsi, Gursharan and Needham, Edward and Easton, Ava and Jackson, Thomas A. and Cunningham, Colm and Upthegrove, Rachel and Pollak, Thomas A. and Hotopf, Matthew and Solomon, Tom and Pett, Sarah L. and Shaw, Pamela J. and Wood, Nicholas and Harrison, Neil A. and Miller, Karla L. and Jezzard, Peter and Williams, Guy and Duff, Eugene P. and Williams, Steven and Zelaya, Fernando and Smith, Stephen M. and Keller, Simon and Broome, Matthew and Kingston, Nathalie and Husain, Masud and Vincent, Angela and Bradley, John and Chinnery, Patrick and Menon, David K. and Aggleton, John P. and Nicholson, Timothy R. and Taylor, John-Paul and David, Anthony S. and Carson, Alan and Bullmore, Ed and Breen, Gerome and Hampshire, Adam and Zandi, Michael S. and Wong, Sui Hsien and Venneri, Annalena and Veenith, Tonny and Underwood, Jonathan and Thomson, Emma and Thomas, Rhys H. and Tamborska, Arina and Taams, Leonie and Smith, Jacqueline and Smith, Craig J. and Singh, Bhagteshwar and Sieradzki, Adam and Shil, Rajish S. K. and Semple, Scott and Seed, Adam W. and Sawcer, Stephen J. and Samuel, Merna and Salman, Rustam Al-Shahi and Rota, Silvia and Roberts, Angela and Peacock, Sharon and Patel, Arvind and Palmos, Alish and Ostermann, Marlies and Orazulume, Obioma and O†Malley, Ronan and Nicholas, Nathalie and Newcombe, Virginia and Nair, Akshay and Mulholland, Ciaran and Morris, Christopher M. and Monssen, Dina and McIntosh, Andrew M. and McIlwaine, Ryan and McKeever, Stephen and McGlinchey, Emily and McDonnell, Gavin and Mansoori, Parisa and Madarshahian, Daniel and MacIver, Claire L. and Lunn, Michael P. and Lilleker, James B. and Lewis, Gabriella and Kyaw, Sandar and Zvrskovec, Johan Kallberg and Jenkins, Thomas M. and Irani, Sarosh and Hughes, Stella and Huang, Yun and Holland, Angela E. and Hodel, Eva Maria and Hiscox, Julian and Hilton, Orla and Hetherington, Claire and Hartmann, Monika and Harrison, Paul J. and Harrison, Ewan and Harris, Jade D. and Hardwick, Marc and Hamid, Shahd H. M. and Gunatilake, Savini and Grundmann, Alexander and Grimbly, Victoria and Griffiths, Michael and Gregory, Rebecca and Glen, Kiran and George, Lily and Garjani, Afagh and Galea, Ian and Francis, Richard and Fernandes, Peter M. and Evangelou, Nikos and Ellul, Mark A. and Dregan, Alex and Dodd, Katherine C. and Defres, Sylviane and Davies, Nicholas and Darby, Alastair and Cousins, David and Cossette, Nadine and Collie, Ceryce and Coles, Alaistair and Coleman, Jonathan R. I. and Christmas, David and Cavanagh, Jonathan and Castell, Hannah and Butler, Matthew and Breuer, Judith and Breen, David P. and Boardman, Sarah A. and Blackledge, Bethan and Berry, Alex and Benjamin, Laura and Batra, Rahul and Basu, Neil and Barrett, Suzanne and Baker, Mark R. and Armour, Cherie and Amin, Jay and Allen, Christopher M. and Al-Chalabi, Ammar and Alam, Ali M. and Michael, Benedict D. and Paddick, Stella-Maria and Leek, E. C, Posthospitalization COVID-19 cognitive deficits at 1 year are global and associated with elevated brain injury markers and gray matter volume reduction, Nature Medicine, 31, (1), 2025, p245 â€" 257 , Notes: [Cited by: 18], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Denver, Paul and Cunningham, Colm, Microglial activation and neuroinflammation in acute and chronic cognitive deficits in sepsis, Neuropharmacology, 267, 2025, Notes: [Cited by: 2], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Denver, Paul and Tortorelli, Lucas and Hov, Karen and Berg, Jens Petter and Giil, Lasse M. and Nazmi, Arshed and Lopez-Rodriguez, Ana and Healy, Daire and Murray, Carol and Barry, Robyn and Watne, Leiv Otto and Cunningham, Colm, Chemokine associations with blood cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) barrier permeability and delirium, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity - Health, 43, 2025, Notes: [Cited by: 0; All Open Access, Green Open Access, Hybrid Gold Open Access], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Healy, D. and Murray, C. and McAdams, C. and Power, R. and Hollier, P.-L. and Lambe, J. and Tortorelli, L. and Lopez-Rodriguez, A.B. and Cunningham, C., Susceptibility to acute cognitive dysfunction in aged mice is underpinned by reduced white matter integrity and microgliosis, Communications Biology, 7, (1), 2024, Notes: [cited By 1], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Sanders, R.D. and Watne, L. and Roberson, S.W. and Kimchi, E.Y. and Slooter, A.J.C. and Cunningham, C. and Nourski, K.V. and Palanca, B.J.A. and Lennertz, R. and Banks, M.I., International Delirium Pathophysiology & Electrophysiology Network for Data sharing (iDEPEND), BJA Open, 11, (100304), 2024, Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Aldecoa, C. and Bettelli, G. and Bilotta, F. and Sanders, R.D. and Aceto, P. and Audisio, R. and Cherubini, A. and Cunningham, C. and Dabrowski, W. and Forookhi, A. and Gitti, N. and Immonen, K. and Kehlet, H. and Koch, S. and Kotfis, K. and Latronico, N. and MacLullich, A.M.J. and Mevorach, L. and Mueller, A. and Neuner, B. and Piva, S. and Radtke, F. and Blaser, A.R. and Renzi, S. and Romagnoli, S. and Schubert, M. and Slooter, A.J.C. and Tommasino, C. and Vasiljewa, L. and Weiss, B. and Yuerek, F. and Spies, C.D., Update of the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine evidence-based and consensus-based guideline on postoperative delirium in adult patients, European Journal of Anaesthesiology, 41, (2), 2024, p81-108 , Notes: [cited By 33], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Titlestad, I. and Watne, L.O. and Caplan, G.A. and McCann, A. and Ueland, P.M. and Neerland, B.E. and Myrstad, M. and Halaas, N.B. and Pollmann, C.T. and Henjum, K. and Ranhoff, A.H. and Solberg, L.B. and Figved, W. and Cunningham, C. and Giil, L.M., Impaired glucose utilization in the brain of patients with delirium following hip fracture, Brain, 147, (1), 2024, p215-223 , Notes: [cited By 1], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Tsui, Alex and Johnstone, Benjamin and Heslegrave, Amanda and Zetterberg, Henrik and Watne, Leiv Otto and Neerland, BjÞrn Erik and Krogseth, Maria and Cunningham, Colm and MacLullich, Alasdair and Terrera, Graciela Muniz and Davis, Daniel and Caplan, Gideon, Persistent delirium is associated with cerebrospinal fluid markers of neuronal injury, Brain Communications, 6, (5), 2024, Notes: [Cited by: 2; All Open Access, Gold Open Access, Green Open Access], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Yin Yang, Tomas Ondrejcak, Neng-Wei Hu, Sadia Islam, Eugene O'Rourke, Richard Reilly, Colm Cunningham, Michael Rowan, Igor Klyubin, Gamma-patterned sensory stimulation reverses synaptic plasticity deficits in rat models of early Alzheimer's disease, European Journal of Neuroscience, 58, (6), 2023, p3402 - 3411, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
  

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Donal Skelly, Eadaoin W Griffin, Carol Murray, Sarah Harney, Conor O'Boyle, Edel Hennessy, Nicholas Rawlins, David Bannerman, Colm Cunningham, Acute transient cognitive dysfunction and acute brain injury induced by systemic inflammation occur by dissociable IL-1-dependent mechanisms, bioRxiv, 2017, Dataset, PUBLISHED
Colm Cunningham, European Delirium Association annual meeting 2017, Oslo, Autumn, 2017, Invited Talk, APPROVED
Colm Cunningham, American Delirium Society Annual Meeting, Nashville, June, 2016, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Colm Cunningham, Immunology research series, University of Cambridge, October, 2016, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Colm Cunningham, Neurosciences in Intensive Care Symposium, Pasteur institute, Paris, June, 2016, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Colm Cunningham, Keynote lecture, European Delirium Associaton/British Geriatric Society Meeting, London, September, 2015, BGS/EDA, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Colm Cunningham, British Association for Psychopharmacology Conference, Bristol, August, 2015, BAP, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Colm Cunningham, "Delirium in Older Adults: Finding Order in the Disorder", , NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA, February, 2014, National Institute of Aging & American Geriatrics Society, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Robert Dantzer(ed.), Cytokines in the ageing brain, Trends in Neurosciences, Arcachon, France, 25, ((11)), June 2002, Elsevier, 2002, 546-547 p, Notes: [Author list: Colm Cunningham, Jan-Pieter Konsman and Tammy Cartmell], Proceedings of a Conference, PUBLISHED

  


Award Date
Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship 2006
Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship 2010