18F-MK6240 PET imaging of tau protein in Alzheimer′s disease and cognitive correlation analysis / 中华核医学与分子影像杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the tau deposition pattern in Alzheimer′s disease (AD) and its correlation with cognition by 18F-MK6240 PET imaging. Methods:From August 2021 to February 2022, 46 elderly people over 55 years old (16 males, 30 females; age (68.9±7.7) years) were included from outpatient and community in Shanghai. Structural brain MRI, β-amyloid (Aβ) PET imaging, tau-PET imaging and comprehensive neuropsychological tests batteries were conducted. The subjects were divided into AD group ( n=16) and normal cognition (NC) group ( n=30) according to the 2018 National Institute on aging and Alzheimer′s Association (NIA-AA) diagnostic criteria. Quantitative analysis was conducted to investigate the tau deposition pattern in AD after preprocessing 18F-MK6240 PET images with MRI images. SUV ratio (SUVR) of brain regions such as entorhinal cortex, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, amygdala, insular lobe, frontal lobe, precuneus, occipital lobe, thalamus and putamen were analyzed, with cerebellum as reference region. The differences of tau deposition in brain regions between AD and NC groups were analyzed by independent-sample t test. The associations between SUVR and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score and Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Basic (MoCA-B) score were analyzed by Pearson correlation analysis. Results:AD displayed a significant tau deposition in frontal lobes, temporal lobes and parietal lobes compared with NC. SUVR of brain regions in AD group were higher than those in NC group ( t values 3.37-9.61, all P<0.05). SUVR in brain regions were negatively correlated with MMSE score ( r values from -0.735 to -0.350, all P<0.05) and MoCA-B score ( r values from -0.723 to -0.367, all P<0.05). Conclusion:18F-MK6240 PET can demonstrate the tau deposition in the brain of AD patients, and the tau deposition is related to cognitive function.