A study of brain amyloid and tau deposition using Florbetapir and T807
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A study of brain amyloid and tau deposition using Florbetapir and T807 in young onset Alzheimer’s disease
IRAS ID
167234
Contact name
Jonathan Schott
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
There are numerous causes of dementia, the commonest of which are “neurodegenerative”, i.e., related to excess brain cell loss. A common feature of the neurodegenerative dementias is accumulation of abnormal proteins within the brain, the nature and distribution of which defines the different dementias. The commonest cause of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, which is associated with the deposition of two particular abnormal proteins; beta amyloid and tau. Until very recently the only certain way to subdivide the different causes of dementia has been to look at the brain under a microscope after death. However a recent major development has been the ability to detect the build-up of abnormal amyloid protein using specialist PET scans. Even more recently, tracers have also been developed that can detect build-up of abnormal tau protein. This is a study to assess whether we can detect the accumulation of tau in Alzheimer’s disease during life, and how this relates to build up of amyloid. The study will involve the use PET imaging in a group of 20 individuals who have been diagnosed with young onset Alzheimer's disease. We will do two scans using two different tracers; a Florbetapir F18 PET-MRI scan to detect beta amyloid and a T807 F18 PET-CT scan to detect tau. We aim to assess how the patterns of beta amyloid and tau deposition relate to each other, and to patterns of brain atrophy. We will also investigate how the use of these PET scans might better enable us to assess the stage of patients’ disease and to distinguish between different disease sub-types. This will then provide insight in to the processes that lead to the spread of pathology in AD, which we hope will provide clues as to how the disease may in due course be halted.
REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/1412
Date of REC Opinion
23 Sep 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion