A research tool to evaluate new treatments for Alzheimer's.
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A new imaging molecule that can detect and map plaques and tangles in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease could eventually lead to earlier diagnosis of the devastating disease, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles report in the New England Journal of Medicine. The compound, developed by UCLA and called FDDNP, also holds promise as a research tool to evaluate new treatments for Alzheimer's. FDDNP binds to plaques and tangles, enabling researchers to see these abnormal deposits that form in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease on PET (positron emission tomography) scans. PET scans display maps of the brain that scientists use to understand brain function.
In a clinical trial with volunteers who reported memory problems, results of PET scans using FDDNP correlated well with the volunteers' clinical diagnoses measured by performance on memory tests. In this study, Gary Small, M.D., of UCLA, led a research team that compared PET scans using FDDNP, PET scans using another molecule (FDG) to measure brain activity, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which can show areas losing brain tissue in Alzheimer's disease. Of 83 people who volunteered for the trial, researchers classified 25 as having Alzheimer's, 28 as having mild cognitive impairment, and 30 as healthy. The FDDNP PET scans were more accurate than FDG PET scans or MRI at detecting differences among the groups of volunteers, the study found. Two years later, follow-up testing on a subset of the volunteers showed that FDDNP PET scans continued to correlate well with their clinical symptoms and diagnoses.
"The hope is that better imaging techniques and markers will allow us to conduct clinical trials with fewer volunteers and in less time," says Susan Molchan, M.D., program officer in the NIA Neuroscience and Neuropsychology of Aging Program. "The ability to image brain changes may allow us to see how drugs affect the accumulation of proteins in the brain that cause Alzheimer's plaques and tangles, possibly preventing or delaying the progression of Alzheimer's."
Alzheimer's Donation
Donate Online Now
.
A new imaging molecule that can detect and map plaques and tangles in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease could eventually lead to earlier diagnosis of the devastating disease, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles report in the New England Journal of Medicine. The compound, developed by UCLA and called FDDNP, also holds promise as a research tool to evaluate new treatments for Alzheimer's. FDDNP binds to plaques and tangles, enabling researchers to see these abnormal deposits that form in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease on PET (positron emission tomography) scans. PET scans display maps of the brain that scientists use to understand brain function.
In a clinical trial with volunteers who reported memory problems, results of PET scans using FDDNP correlated well with the volunteers' clinical diagnoses measured by performance on memory tests. In this study, Gary Small, M.D., of UCLA, led a research team that compared PET scans using FDDNP, PET scans using another molecule (FDG) to measure brain activity, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which can show areas losing brain tissue in Alzheimer's disease. Of 83 people who volunteered for the trial, researchers classified 25 as having Alzheimer's, 28 as having mild cognitive impairment, and 30 as healthy. The FDDNP PET scans were more accurate than FDG PET scans or MRI at detecting differences among the groups of volunteers, the study found. Two years later, follow-up testing on a subset of the volunteers showed that FDDNP PET scans continued to correlate well with their clinical symptoms and diagnoses.
"The hope is that better imaging techniques and markers will allow us to conduct clinical trials with fewer volunteers and in less time," says Susan Molchan, M.D., program officer in the NIA Neuroscience and Neuropsychology of Aging Program. "The ability to image brain changes may allow us to see how drugs affect the accumulation of proteins in the brain that cause Alzheimer's plaques and tangles, possibly preventing or delaying the progression of Alzheimer's."
posted by Valery Yermalitsky at
7:00 AM
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