BrainMap: Mattia Veronese, PhD

Tuesday, July 12, 2016 - 12:00 to 13:00
149 13th Street, main second floor seminar room (2204)

Imaging Neuroinflammation with TSPO Positron Emission Tomography
 
For more than 20 years, Positron Emission Tomography has allowed the imaging of TSPO density in brain using [11C]-(R)-PK11195, that has demonstrated microglial activation in a large number pathological cohorts. The significant clinical interest in brain immunity as primary or comorbid factor in illness has sparked great interest in the TSPO as a biomarker and a surprising number of 2nd generation TSPO radiotracers have been developed aimed at improving the quality of TSPO imaging through novel radioligands with higher affinity. However such major investment has not yet resulted in the expected improvement in image quality. The talk will review the main methodological aspects of TSPO PET imaging with particular attention to TSPO genetics, cellular heterogeneity of TSPO in brain tissue and TSPO distribution in blood and plasma that need to be considered in the quantification of PET data to avoid spurious results.