Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 20, 2025
Hybrid PET/MRI Imaging of Alzheimer's Disease Based on 18F-AV-1451
Published on: April 18, 2025
Molecular Imaging Approaches in Dementia
Victor L Villemagne1, Frederik Barkhof1, Valentina Garibotto1
1From the Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa (V.L.V.); Department of Medicine, the University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia (V.L.V.); Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (F.B., B.N.M.v.B.); UCL institutes of Neurology and Healthcare Engineering, London, England (F.B.); Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Geneva University Hospitals and Laboratory of Neuroimaging and Innovative Molecular Tracers, Geneva University, Geneva, Switzerland (V.G.); Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Calif (S.M.L.); Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif (S.M.L.); Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Center for Alzheimer Research, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden (A.N.); and Theme Aging, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden (A.N.).
Abstract:
The increasing prevalence of dementia worldwide places a high demand on healthcare providers to perform a diagnostic work-up in relatively early stages of the disease, given that the pathologic process usually begins decades before symptoms are evident. Structural imaging is recommended to rule out other disorders and can only provide diagnosis in a late stage with limited specificity. Where PET imaging previously focused on the spatial pattern of hypometabolism, the past decade has seen the development of novel tracers to demonstrate characteristic protein abnormalities. Molecular imaging using PET/SPECT is able to show amyloid and tau deposition in Alzheimer disease and dopamine depletion in parkinsonian disorders starting decades before symptom onset. Novel tracers for neuroinflammation and synaptic density are being developed to further unravel the molecular pathologic characteristics of dementia disorders. In this article, the authors review the current status of established and emerging PET tracers in a diagnostic setting and also their value as prognostic markers in research studies and outcome measures for clinical trials in Alzheimer disease.
