Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Cologne, Germany.
Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Cologne, Germany; German Research Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Germany.
Methods. 2017 Nov 1;130:114-123. doi: 10.1016/j.ymeth.2017.08.003. Epub 2017 Aug 5.
Pathological cerebral aggregations of proteins are suggested to play a crucial role in the development of neurodegenerative disorders. For example, aggregation of the protein ß-amyloid in form of extracellular amyloid-plaques as well as intraneuronal depositions of the protein tau in form of neurofibrillary tangles represent hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recently, novel tracers for in vivo molecular imaging of tau-aggregates in the brain have been introduced, complementing existing tracers for imaging amyloid-plaques. Available data on these novel tracers indicate that the subject of Tau-PET may be of considerable complexity. On the one hand this refers to the various forms of appearance of tau-pathology in different types of neurodegenerative disorders. On the other hand, a number of hurdles regarding validation of these tracers still need to be overcome with regard to comparability and standardization of the different tracers, observed off-target/non-specific binding and quantitative interpretation of the signal. These issues will have to be clarified before systematic clinical application of this exciting new methodological approach may become possible. Potential applications refer to early detection of neurodegeneration, differential diagnosis between tauopathies and non-tauopathies and specific patient selection and follow-up in therapy trials.
病理性的蛋白聚集被认为在神经退行性疾病的发展中起着关键作用。例如，β-淀粉样蛋白的聚集形成细胞外淀粉样斑块，以及蛋白 tau 的聚集形成神经元内神经纤维缠结，这是阿尔茨海默病（AD）的标志性病变。最近，已经引入了用于在体内对脑内 tau 聚集物进行分子成像的新型示踪剂，补充了用于成像淀粉样斑块的现有示踪剂。这些新型示踪剂的可用数据表明 Tau-PET 可能存在相当大的复杂性。一方面，这涉及到不同类型的神经退行性疾病中 tau 病理学的各种表现形式。另一方面，在比较和标准化不同示踪剂、观察脱靶/非特异性结合以及定量解释信号方面，仍需要克服一些障碍。在这种令人兴奋的新方法学方法能够得到系统的临床应用之前，必须解决这些问题。潜在的应用包括早期发现神经退行性变、tau 病与非 tau 病之间的鉴别诊断以及治疗试验中的特定患者选择和随访。
