Dung Minh Hoang1, Jing Yang2,
Lindsay K. Hill1, Wai Tsui3, Yanjie Sun2,
Yongsheng Li2, Mony De Leon3, Thomas Wisniewski2,3,
Youssef Zaim Wadghiri1
1Radiology, NYU School of
Medicine, New York, NY, United States; 2Neurology, NYU School of
Medicine, New York, NY, United States; 3Psychiatry, NYU School of
Medicine, New York, NY, United States
Amyloid β (Aβ) plaques are one of the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimers disease (AD). Their visualization in the brain is very important to monitor AD progression and to evaluate the efficacy of therapeutic interventions. Numerous studies have investigated the visualization of Aβ plaques using MRI through endogenous detection both in human and in mouse brains. In the present study, we examined whether the use of ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO) nanoparticles, chemically coupled with Aβ1-42 peptide along with mannitol through femoral intravenous injection can be effective to detect individual plaques using in vivo MRI and map the amyloid burden throughout the brain.