Emerging Molecular PET Imaging for Cell Death in Neurodegenerative Diseases

Neuronal cell death is closely associated with various neurodegenerative diseases. The ability to visualize neuronal cell death is critical for facilitating early diagnosis, monitoring disease progression, evaluating therapeutic efficacy, and developing new treatments for these conditions. Positron emission tomography (PET), as a noninvasive imaging tool, enables real-time visualization of biochemical processes in vivo with quantitative information, offering valuable insights into cell death mechanisms in neurodegeneration. This perspective highlights recent advances in PET probes developed to visualize cell death in neurodegenerative diseases, as well as emerging probes targeting mechanisms associated with various forms of neuronal cell death. We anticipate that this perspective will inspire the development of PET imaging probes for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.