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PET Biomarkers for Tau Pathology

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Radiopharmaceuticals

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Abstract

The aggregation and accumulation of pathologic forms of the microtubule-associated tau protein into fibrils, eventually forming characteristic tangle pathology, hallmarks the majority of all dementia disorders which constitute the most prevalent family of neurodegenerative disorders. These so-called tauopathies are difficult to identify and diagnose, especially at early disease stages. The relatively recent development of positron emission tomography tracers to visualize, map, and quantify tau pathology in the living brain has already provided substantial information about the temporal and spatial characteristics of tau accumulation during disease development, holding promise to serve as a highly valuable diagnostic tool in research and clinical settings. This chapter describes the current state of research employing tau biomarkers derived from neuroimaging with PET as well as recent technical developments in this field.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Memory Research Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden

    Antoine Leuzy & Michael Schöll

  2. Wallenberg Centre for Molecular and Translational Medicine and The Department for Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Antoine Leuzy, Kerstin Heurling & Michael Schöll

  3. Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, Dementia Research Centre, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, UK

    Michael Schöll

Authors
  1. Antoine Leuzy
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  2. Kerstin Heurling
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  3. Michael Schöll
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Schöll .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine and Theranostics, Mariano Santo Hospital, Cosenza, Italy

    Ferdinando Calabria

  2. Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

    Orazio Schillaci

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Leuzy, A., Heurling, K., Schöll, M. (2020). PET Biomarkers for Tau Pathology. In: Calabria, F., Schillaci, O. (eds) Radiopharmaceuticals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27779-6_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27779-6_13

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