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PET imaging of tau protein targets: a methodology perspective

  • Advances in Imaging (Hadassah Conference)
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Abstract

The two neuropathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are amyloid-\(\beta\) plaques and neurofibrillary tangles of tau protein. Fifteen years ago, Positron Emission Tomography (PET) with Pittsburgh Compound B (11C-PiB) enabled selective in-vivo visualization of amyloid-\(\beta\) plaque deposits and has since provided valuable information about the role of amyloid-\(\beta\) deposition in AD. The progression of tau deposition has been shown to be highly associated with neuronal loss, neurodegeneration, and cognitive decline. Until recently it was not possible to visualize tau deposition in-vivo, but several tau PET tracers are now available in different stages of clinical development. To date, no tau tracer has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the evaluation of AD or other tauopathies, despite very active research efforts. In this paper we review the recent developments in tau PET imaging with a focus on in-vivo findings in AD and discuss the challenges associated with tau tracer development, the status of development and validation of different tau tracers, and the clinical information these provide.

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Courtesy of Cristian Salinas, Biogen

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Funding

This work was supported by NIH grants (R01AG046396, R01AG027435, R01DC014296 and P01AG036694).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gordon Center for Medical Imaging, Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Cristina Lois & Keith A. Johnson

  2. Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Research, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Ivan Gonzalez & Julie C. Price

Authors
  1. Cristina Lois
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  2. Ivan Gonzalez
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  3. Keith A. Johnson
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  4. Julie C. Price
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Correspondence to Cristina Lois.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Conflict of interest

CL and IG declare no conflict of interest. KAJ reports grants from NIH, Fidelity Biosciences, Harvard Neurodiscovery Center, and from the Alzheimer’s Association; and consulting for Lilly/Avid, Piramal, Abbvie, Biogen, Janssen, Merck, Novartis, Genentech and GEHC. JCP reports NIH grant R01 AG050436; speaker honoraria from Yale University, Mount Sinai Hospital and Georgetown University; and is a member of NIH Center for Scientific Review Advisory Council.

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Lois, C., Gonzalez, I., Johnson, K.A. et al. PET imaging of tau protein targets: a methodology perspective. Brain Imaging and Behavior 13, 333–344 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-018-9847-7

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