Research progress of PET tracer in early diagnosis of Alzheimer′s disease

Abstract

Alzheimer′s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease with extremely complex pathogenesis, characterized by cognitive dysfunction and memory loss, involving in a variety of physiological and pathophysiological processes. Early diagnosis is a key factor for the prevention and treatment of AD. Positron emission tomography (PET) technology can accurately detect subtle physiological changes in neurons and brain tissues at the molecular level, providing evidence for early diagnosis of AD. Starting from the classification of biomarkers, the relevant targets of protein degeneration and neuronal damage in the brain were introduced, and the research status of various PET tracers was reviewed according to several important parameters such as affinity, half-life, binding region, pharmacokinetics, analysis method and correlation of results, etc. Additionally, the current problems faced by the development of PET tracers were pointed out, and it was believed that future research should be carried out from the following aspects: The development of PET tracers related to neuroinflammation; Further evaluation and optimization of existing tracers; Normalization and standardization of methods for the analysis of tracer results.

Keywords

• medical imaging science; positron emission tomography; pet tracer; alzheimer′s disease(ad); clinical diagnosis