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PET Tracers for Beta-Amyloid and Other Proteinopathies

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PET and SPECT of Neurobiological Systems

Abstract

The recent rapid development of molecular imaging techniques has provided us with great possibilities to follow neurodegenerative disease processes in the brain. Molecular imaging with positron emission tomography (PET) has been important in further understanding the role of various proteinopathies in dementia disorders. For Alzheimer’s disease (AD), several PET beta amyloid (Aß) tracers have been developed. These include the most-investigated 11C-Pittsburgh compound B (11C-PIB), but also several 18F-labeled tracers, such as 18F-florbetapir, 18F-florbetaben, 18F-flutemetamol, and 18F-NAV-4694, which have longer half-lives and therefore are more suitable for clinical use. Fibrillar brain Aß is able to be detected by PET very early in the progression of AD, several years before the observed decline in cerebral glucose metabolism that is more closely related to cognitive impairment. PET Aß imaging allows discrimination between AD and other non-Aß diseases, including frontotemporal lobar dementia (FTLD). However, Aß brain expression may also be observed in other dementia disorders, including dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), Parkinson’s disease with dementia (PDD), and cortical basal dementia. Most importantly, different PET tau tracers, which should provide additional important insights and understandings of the complex pathophysiology processes in various neurodegenerative diseases, are being developed.

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Acknowledgement

Great thanks to MPharm Ruiqing Ni, Karolinska institutet for drawing Fig. 8.1.

Financial support was received from the Swedish Research Council (project 05817), the Karolinska Institutet Strategic Neuroscience program, the Stockholm County Council-Karolinska Institutet regional agreement on medical training and clinical research (ALF grant), Swedish Brain Power, the Swedish Brain Foundation, Stohne’s foundation, the Alzheimer Foundation in Sweden, the Foundation for Old Servants, and EU FW7 large-scale integrating project INMiND (http://www.uni-muenster.de/InMind).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alzheimer Neurobiology Center, Karolinska Institutet, Department of Geriatric Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge, Novum 5th Floor, S-14186, Stockholm, Sweden

    Agneta Nordberg

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  1. Agneta Nordberg
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Correspondence to Agneta Nordberg .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Rudi A.J.O. Dierckx

  2. Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, University of Applied Sciences Offenburg, Offenburg, Germany

    Andreas Otte

  3. Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Erik F.J. de Vries

  4. Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Aren van Waarde

  5. Molecular Neurobiology, Universtiy of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Paul G.M. Luiten

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Nordberg, A. (2014). PET Tracers for Beta-Amyloid and Other Proteinopathies. In: Dierckx, R., Otte, A., de Vries, E., van Waarde, A., Luiten, P. (eds) PET and SPECT of Neurobiological Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-42014-6_8

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