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Review
. 2022 Mar;49(4):1275-1287.
doi: 10.1007/s00259-021-05640-5. Epub 2021 Dec 7.

PET imaging of reactive astrocytes in neurological disorders

Yu Liu  1   2   3 , Han Jiang  4 , Xiyi Qin  1   2   3 , Mei Tian  5   6   7 , Hong Zhang  8   9   10   11   12
Affiliations
Review

PET imaging of reactive astrocytes in neurological disorders

Yu Liu et al. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2022 Mar.

Abstract

The reactive astrocytes manifest molecular, structural, and functional remodeling in injury, infection, or diseases of the CNS, which play a critical role in the pathological mechanism of neurological diseases. A growing need exists for dependable approach to better characterize the activation of astrocyte in vivo. As an advanced molecular imaging technology, positron emission tomography (PET) has the potential for visualizing biological activities at the cellular levels. In the review, we summarized the PET visualization strategies for reactive astrocytes and discussed the applications of astrocyte PET imaging in neurological diseases. Future studies are needed to pay more attention to the development of specific imaging agents for astrocytes and further improve our exploration of reactive astrocytes in various diseases.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease (AD); Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); Monoamine oxidases-B (MAO-B); Multiple sclerosis (MS); Parkinson’s disease (PD); Positron emission tomography (PET); Reactive astrocytes.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Illustration of tracer bind sites on astrocyte
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Progression of PET biomarkers in ADAD mutation carriers. Compared with five age-matched non-carriers, each pair of columns represents a single mutation carrier. Each pair of rows represents a different PET biomarker. The scale from left to right indicates the approximate time (in years) that clinical symptoms are expected to appear. (Reprint permission was obtained from reference [50])
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
11C-BU99008 standardized uptake value. Compared with the healthy control (A ; 65-year-old male), early Parkinson’s disease patients (B; 60-year-old female; disease duration 2 years) demonstrated more 11C-BU99008 uptake, which represented increased I2BS expression, whereas moderate/advanced Parkinson’s disease patients (C; 63-year-old male; disease duration 16 years) showed a global loss of it. (Reprint permission was obtained from reference [7])
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
11C-DED PET parametric images of ALS patient and healthy control. Compared with the healthy control, the uptake rates of pons and white matter in ALS patients were significantly increased. (Reprint permission was obtained from reference [83])
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Anatomically normalized group mean images of 1-C-11 acetate in the MS and NC groups. k1 (a ) represents influx of acetate; k2 (b) represents clearance of total radioactive molecules generated from acetate metabolism in the brain; Vt (c) represents radioactivity distribution volume; FA (d) represents the fractional anisotropy. (Reprint permission was obtained from reference [
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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