A promising endogenous, non-radioactive method to quantify neuroinflammation in Alzheimer Disease

Accumulation of amyloid beta (Aβ) plaques and neurofibrillary tau tangles are the neuropathological hallmarks of Alzheimer disease (AD). However, increasing evidence points to the involvement of neuroinflammation in early AD and disease progression. Diffusion basis spectrum imaging (DBSI) is a novel non-invasive and non-radioactive multi-parametric diffusion MRI technique to quantify neuroinflammation in AD. We demonstrated that DBSI derived neuroinflammation marker significantly correlated with 11C-PK11195 PET imaging, a marker for microglia activation and neuroinflammation, suggesting DBSI as a promising endogenous, non-radioactive method to quantify neuroinflammation in AD.