Imaging of neuroinflammation: TSPO and beyond

Imaging neuroinflammation in multiple sclerosis using TSPO-PET

Conventional MR imaging (MRI) techniques form the cornerstone of multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnostics and clinical follow-up today. MRI is sensitive in demonstrating focal inflammatory lesions and diffuse atrophy. However, especially in progressive MS, there is increasingly widespread diffuse pathology also outside the plaques, often related to microglial activation and neurodegeneration. This c...

PET Imaging of Microglial Activation-Beyond Targeting TSPO.

Neuroinflammation, which involves microglial activation, is thought to play a key role in the development and progression of neurodegenerative diseases and other brain pathologies. Positron emission tomography is an ideal imaging technique for studying biochemical processes in vivo, and particularly for studying the living brain. Neuroinflammation has been traditionally studied using radiotrace...

Two binding sites for [3H]PBR28 in human brain: implications for TSPO PET imaging of neuroinflammation.

[(11)C]PBR28, a radioligand targeting the translocator protein (TSPO), does not produce a specific binding signal in approximately 14% of healthy volunteers. This phenomenon has not been reported for [(11)C]PK11195, another TSPO radioligand. We measured the specific binding signals with [(3)H]PK11195 and [(3)H]PBR28 in brain tissue from 22 donors. Overall, 23% of the samples did not generate a ...

The role of TSPO PET in assessing neuroinflammation

TSPO imaging in parkinsonian disorders

Microglial activation is a key aspect of the neuroinflammatory process in neurodegenerative disorders including idiopathic and atypical parkinsonian disorders. With positron emission tomography (PET) it has become possible to image this phenomenon in vivo and over the last years patterns of microglia activation corresponding with the known distribution of neuropathological changes in these diso...