PET radiopharmaceuticals in the diagnosis of neurological diseases

Abstract

The aim of our study is to evaluate published data for use of PET radiopharmaceuticals in neurological diseases in particular for Alzheimer’s disease (AD).Introduction:  PET (Positron Emission Tomography) is highly specific and sensitive technique of detecting critical information with regards to the alterations in the brain’s anatomy and physiology observed in many neurological diseases.Several clinical studies in last years strongly recommended [¹⁸F] FDG (2-fluoro-2-deoxi-D-glucoze), which is an analogue molecule of glucose normally consumed by the brain in detecting the presence of hypo metabolism several years before the onset of AD symptoms and as the only commercially available PET radiopharmaceutical.

Results and discussion up to reviewed literature:  

From the reviewed references we can see that the application of imaging disease-related who provide the information about the causes of AD such as loss of synaptic activity, gliosis and deposits of amyloid plaques is very important. For that reason PET imaging is very crucial to improve the specificity and accuracy of the diagnosis of AD and predemntia states.

The typical use of the radiopharmaceuticals (mostly [¹⁸F] FDG) are designed to target specific aspects of AD and of the other neurological diseases. They allow early interventions with disease – modifying therapies which aim is to delay the onset and progression of detected disease.

The clinical development of the new design of clinical studies and in the same time to develop new neuroimaging radiopharmaceuticals is mostly related to the functional and metabolic abnormalities.

Disease-specific markers such as amyloid ligands is leading the new applications of PET to neurodegenerative diseases that are prevalent in aging societies.

For that reason the translation of molecular imaging to clinical applications require combining specific radiopharmaceutical approaches with targeted therapy for the realization of personalized medicine.

Conclusion:

This work was performed as a part of the Diploma Thesis of Pharmacy “PET radiopharmaceuticals in the diagnosis of neurological diseases”, that will be defense in the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Goce Delcev University in Stip.

Current literature indicates that even only [¹⁸F] FDG is commercially available PET radiopharmaceutical with clinical relevance in the early and differential diagnosis of AD, in the last year the number of new PET radiopharmaceuticals (labelled with¹⁸F, ¹¹C, ⁶⁸Ga,⁶⁴Cu) are under different stage of clinical trials. The future of all of them will be translated into benefits for patients living with AD.