Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands.
Braz J Psychiatry. 2012 Oct;34 Suppl 2:S125-36. doi: 10.1016/j.rbp.2012.07.002.
The pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases (ND) such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) has not yet been completely elucidated. However, in the past few years, there have been great knowledge advances about intra-and extracellular proteins that may display impaired function or expression in AD, PD and other ND, such as amyloid beta (Aβ), α-synuclein, tau protein and neuroinflammatory markers. Recent developments in the imaging techniques of positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) now allow the non-invasive tracking of such molecular targets of known relevance to ND in vivo. This article summarizes recent findings of PET and SPECT studies using these novel methods, and discusses their potential role in the field of drug development for ND as well as future clinical applications in regard to differential diagnosis of ND and monitoring of disease progression.
神经退行性疾病（ND）的病理生理学，如阿尔茨海默病（AD）和帕金森病（PD），尚未完全阐明。然而，在过去的几年中，人们对可能在 AD、PD 和其他 ND 中表现出功能障碍或表达异常的细胞内外蛋白有了很大的认识进展，如淀粉样β（Aβ）、α-突触核蛋白、tau 蛋白和神经炎症标志物。正电子发射断层扫描（PET）和单光子发射计算机断层扫描（SPECT）的成像技术的最新进展现在可以在体内非侵入性地追踪这些与 ND 相关的已知分子靶点。本文总结了使用这些新方法的 PET 和 SPECT 研究的最新发现，并讨论了它们在 ND 药物开发领域的潜在作用以及在 ND 的鉴别诊断和疾病进展监测方面的未来临床应用。
