UCLA researchers using innovative brain-scan technology have shown that the abnormal brain protein deposits that define Alzheimer's disease can be detected in mild cognitive impairment — a condition that increases the risk for developing Alzheimer's and affects 15 to 20 million Americans. The study is published in the Dec. 21 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

Scientists are in the early stages of identifying biomarkers in the blood and spinal fluid to help with Alzheimer's diagnosis, but this new study is the first to report a real-time "window into the brain" that identifies the major abnormal deposits of the disease in living people who may not develop Alzheimer's for years to come. The researchers used positron emission tomography (PET) imaging employing a small molecule invented at UCLA that binds to the abnormal proteins — amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles — that may cause the disease. Previously, only an autopsy could determine the existence of these deposits and confirm a definitive diagnosis.

Study results found that the new method was able to track disease progression over a two-year period and was more effective than conventional imaging techniques in differentiating patients with Alzheimer's and mild cognitive impairment from normal study subjects. Researchers are now working with Siemens Medical to begin a clinical trial using this new molecular marker in order to obtain Food and Drug Administration approval. FDA approval would make the method available in the future for use by physicians with their patients.


"The study suggests that we may now have a new diagnostic tool for detecting pre-Alzheimer's conditions to help us identify those at risk, perhaps years before symptoms become obvious," said Dr. Gary Small, Parlow-Solomon Professor on Aging, lead study author and a professor with the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. "This imaging technology may also allow us to test novel drug therapies and manage disease progression over time, possibly protecting the brain before damage occurs."

The study included 83 volunteers aged 49 to 84. Based on cognitive testing, 25 patients had Alzheimer's disease, 28 had mild cognitive impairment and 30 were normal controls. Researchers performed PET brain scans after intravenously injecting the volunteers with the new chemical marker, called FDDNP, which binds to the plaque and tangle deposits found in Alzheimer's patients. Scientists found distinct differences among people with normal brain aging, people with Alzheimer's and people with mild cognitive impairment.

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