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Advance and Prospect of Positron Emission Tomography in Alzheimer’s disease research

Molecular Psychiatry volume 30, pages 4899–4909 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease which is continually increasing in prevalence and is attracting more and more attention. Based on the traditional diagnostic framework, imaging biomarkers have shown great prospect in diagnosis. Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, as a novel biomarker of AD, evaluates the progress and changes at the molecular level and develops many radiotracers corresponding to the hallmark biological targets. Compounds labeled with radioactive elements are transported to specific regions or combine with specific substances such as amyloid β(Aβ), paired helical filaments (PHFs) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), which makes different radioactive uptake in different brain regions of AD. This review will set forth 18F-FDG PET imaging, Aβ-PET imaging, Tau-PET imaging, neuroinflammatory PET imaging, neurotransmitter PET imaging and some other emerging PET imaging. In clinical practices, PET performed with other medical imaging tools shows a great prospect.

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Fig. 1: Z-score and 3D-SSP maps generated by comparing a patient with AD to a database of normal control elderly subjects.
Fig. 2: Group-averaged parametric maps of SUVR and VT for HC, aMCI and AD.
Fig. 3: Visualization of tau pathology in vivo using four tau-PET tracers.
Fig. 4: TSPO-PET imaging in prodromal AD, MCI, and dementia.
Fig. 5: Pearson’s r: correlation graph of synaptic density and overall cognition in all regions of AD patients.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge that: 1.the key Project of Basic Research of Shenzhen, NO: JCYJ20200109113603854; 2.the Screening and Intervention Research of Preclinical Cohort of Alzheimer’s Disease, Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangzhou, NO:2024A03J1134; 3.the key Laboratory of the Prevention and Treatment Technology of Alzheimer’s Disease of Guangzhou; 4. National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 32361143787.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Yulin Wang, Wanchen Liao.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Affiliated Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510317, China

    Yulin Wang, Wanchen Liao, Lei Wang, Jun Li, Dongqing Huang, Weibin Cheng, Junzhang Tian & Ping Luan

  2. School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    Ping Luan

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YW: conceptualization, visualization, writing—original draft; WL: visualization, conceptualization, writing—original draft; LW: methodology, data curation; JL: investigation, formal analysis; DH: methodology, project administration; WC: writing—review and editing; JT: conceptualization, writing—review and editing; PL: writing—review and editing, supervision.

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Wang, Y., Liao, W., Wang, L. et al. Advance and Prospect of Positron Emission Tomography in Alzheimer’s disease research. Mol Psychiatry 30, 4899–4909 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-025-03081-2

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