Sahara Naruhiko, Shimojo Masafumi, Ono Maiko, Takuwa Hiroyuki, Febo Marcelo, Higuchi Makoto, Suhara Tetsuya
Department of Functional Brain Imaging Research, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, Chiba, Japan.
Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, United States.
Front Neurol. 2017 Dec 7;8:663. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2017.00663. eCollection 2017.
Association of tau deposition with neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related tau-positive neurological disorders collectively referred to as tauopathies indicates contribution of tau aggregates to neurotoxicity. The discovery of tau gene mutations in FTDP-17- kindreds has provided unequivocal evidence that tau abnormalities alone can induce neurodegenerative disorders. Therefore, visualization of tau accumulation would offer a reliable, objective index to aid in the diagnosis of tauopathy and to assess the disease progression. Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of tau lesions is currently available using several tau PET ligands. Because most tau PET ligands have the property of an extrinsic fluorescent dye, these ligands are considered to be useful for both PET and fluorescence imaging. In addition, small-animal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is available for both structural and functional imaging. Using these advanced imaging techniques, studies on a mouse model of tauopathy will provide significant insight into the translational research of neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, we will discuss the utilities of PET, MRI, and fluorescence imaging for evaluating the disease progression of tauopathy.
在阿尔茨海默病（AD）以及统称为tau蛋白病的相关tau蛋白阳性神经疾病中，tau蛋白沉积与神经退行性变之间的关联表明tau蛋白聚集体具有神经毒性作用。在额颞叶痴呆伴帕金森综合征17型（FTDP - 17）家族中发现tau基因突变，为仅tau蛋白异常即可诱发神经退行性疾病提供了明确证据。因此，tau蛋白积累的可视化将为tau蛋白病的诊断及疾病进展评估提供一个可靠、客观的指标。目前可使用多种tau蛋白正电子发射断层扫描（PET）配体对tau蛋白病变进行PET成像。由于大多数tau蛋白PET配体具有外源性荧光染料的特性，这些配体被认为对PET成像和荧光成像均有用。此外，小动物磁共振成像（MRI）可用于结构和功能成像。利用这些先进的成像技术，对tau蛋白病小鼠模型的研究将为神经退行性疾病的转化研究提供重要见解。在本综述中，我们将讨论PET、MRI和荧光成像在评估tau蛋白病疾病进展方面的应用。
