Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 27, 2026

Correlative Light and Electron Microscopy to Study Microglial Interactions with β-Amyloid Plaques
Published on: June 1, 2016
Characterization of a brain permeant fluorescent molecule and visualization of Aβ parenchymal plaques, using
G S M Sundaram1, Kanchan Garai, Nigam P Rath
1BRIGHT Institute, Molecular Imaging Center, ‡Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, §Department of Biomedical Engineering, ∥Departments of Neurology and ⊥Pathology & Immunology, #Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, and ∇Hope Center for Neurological Disorders, Washington University School of Medicine , St. Louis, Missouri 63110, United States.
Abstract:
Emerging paradigms mandate discovery of imaging agents for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease (AD) prior to appearance of clinical symptoms. To accomplish this objective, a novel heterocyclic molecule (4) was synthesized and validated as Aβ targeted probe. The agent shows labeling of numerous diffuse Aβ plaques in confirmed AD human brain tissues and traverses the blood-brain barrier to enable labeling of parenchymal Aβ plaques in live mice (APP(±)/PS1(±)) brains.

