PET imaging of neuroinflammation in neurological disorders

• Published in: Lancet neurology Vol. 19; no. 11; pp. 940 - 950
• Main Authors: Kreisl, William C, Kim, Min-Jeong, Coughlin, Jennifer M, Henter, Ioline D, Owen, David R, Innis, Robert B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2020; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Alzheimer's disease; Animals; Astrocytes - metabolism; Astrocytes - pathology; Binding sites; Biomarkers; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - metabolism; Brain research; Dementia; Drug development; Humans; Immune response; Inflammation - diagnostic imaging; Inflammation - metabolism; Microglia - metabolism; Multiple sclerosis; Nervous System Diseases - diagnostic imaging; Nervous System Diseases - metabolism; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neuroimaging; Neurological diseases; Neurological disorders; Neuronal-glial interactions; Noise; Pathophysiology; Polymorphism; Positron emission tomography; Positron-Emission Tomography - methods; Stroke
• ISSN: 1474-4422; 1474-4465; 1474-4465
• DOI: 10.1016/S1474-4422(20)30346-X

A growing need exists for reliable in-vivo measurement of neuroinflammation to better characterise the inflammatory processes underlying various diseases and to inform the development of novel therapeutics that target deleterious glial activity. PET is well suited to quantify neuroinflammation and has the potential to discriminate components of the neuroimmune response. However, there are several obstacles to the reliable quantification of neuroinflammation by PET imaging. Despite these challenges, PET studies have consistently identified associations between neuroimmune responses and pathophysiology in brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. Tissue studies have also begun to clarify the meaning of changes in PET signal in some diseases. Furthermore, although PET imaging of neuroinflammation does not have an established clinical application, novel targets are under investigation and a small but growing number of studies have suggested that this imaging modality could have a role in drug development. Future studies are needed to further improve our knowledge of the cellular mechanisms that underlie changes in PET signal, how immune response contributes to neurological disease, and how it might be therapeutically modified.