Images of Alzheimer’s disease plaques:An in vivo experiment of a new radioactive tracer ¹⁸F-W372

Objective To evaluate the distribution characteristics of 18F-W372,a new radioactive tracer,in human brain and their clinical value by analyzing its images in Alzheimer’s disease（AD） patients and healthy aged controls. Methods Eight AD patients and 9 healthy aged controls were enrolled in this study.After 18F-W372 was injected,data were collected for 40 minutes under dynamic PET scanning.Standardized uptake value（SUV） and cortical-to-cerebellum standardized uptake value ratio（SUVR） were calculated using region of interest（ROI） to obtain the time-activity curve（TAC）. Results No 18F-W372-related adverse events occurred in all AD patients and healthy aged controls.The TAC showed that 18F-W372 could rapidly pass through the blood-cerebral barrier and was swiftly cleared.The retention time of 18F-W372 was longer in cerebral endothelial region of AD patients than in that of healthy aged controls.The 18F-W372 was significantly concentrated in the white matter（WM） of human brain.Forty minutes after injection of 18F-W372,the cortical /cerebellar SUVR was higher in AD patients than in healthy aged controls（t=3.74,P=0.003）. Conclusion 18F-W372,as a new radioactive tracer of AD plaques,has a rather good tolerance and can thus be used in diagnosis and differential diagnosis of AD with a good prospect of clinical application.