Bohanna India, Georgiou-Karistianis Nellie, Hannan Anthony J, Egan Gary F
Howard Florey Institute and Centre for Neuroscience, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3010, Australia.
Brain Res Rev. 2008 Jun;58(1):209-25. doi: 10.1016/j.brainresrev.2008.04.001. Epub 2008 Apr 9.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), functional MRI (fMRI) and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) have been central to characterisation of abnormalities in brain structure and function in both clinical and preclinical Huntington's disease (HD). One current challenge in clinical HD research is the identification of sensitive and reliable biomarkers to detect progressive neurodegeneration and neural dysfunction, which could be used to assess the effect of therapeutic intervention on brain structure and function in a HD clinical trial. To this end, both established and novel neuroimaging approaches could potentially provide sensitive, reliable and non-invasive tools to assess long-term and dynamic effects of treatment on specific brain regions, including their microstructure and connectivity. This review examines contributions from structural MRI, fMRI and DTI studies to our current understanding of preclinical and clinical HD, and critically appraises MRI methods potentially suitable for both scientific characterisation and for use as biomarkers in HD clinical trials. A combined neuroimaging approach incorporating structural MRI, fMRI and DTI is yet to be realised in HD clinical trials, however if proven to be sensitive and reliable, these methods could potentially serve as biomarkers for use in future clinical drug trials in HD.
磁共振成像（MRI）、功能磁共振成像（fMRI）和扩散张量成像（DTI）在临床和临床前亨廷顿舞蹈病（HD）的脑结构与功能异常特征描述中发挥了核心作用。临床HD研究当前面临的一个挑战是识别敏感且可靠的生物标志物，以检测进行性神经退行性变和神经功能障碍，这些生物标志物可用于评估HD临床试验中治疗干预对脑结构和功能的影响。为此，既定的和新型的神经影像学方法都有可能提供敏感、可靠且无创的工具，来评估治疗对特定脑区的长期和动态影响，包括其微观结构和连接性。本综述考察了结构MRI、fMRI和DTI研究对我们当前对临床前和临床HD理解的贡献，并批判性地评估了可能适用于HD科学特征描述以及用作HD临床试验生物标志物的MRI方法。在HD临床试验中，将结构MRI、fMRI和DTI结合的神经影像学方法尚未实现，然而，如果证明这些方法敏感且可靠，它们有可能作为生物标志物用于未来HD的临床药物试验。
