title: Advances in molecular imaging for the diagnosis of dementia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is an urgent need for early diagnosis and treatment of dementia to ease caregiver burden and medical costs associated with the increasing number of affected patients. Molecular imaging with target-specific ligands is contributing to the early diagnosis of dementia and the evaluation of anti-dementia therapy.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This article reviews recent advances in the molecular imaging field applied to dementia. To illustrate the utility of molecular imaging in the clinical management of dementia, results from recently published papers using new imaging probes are compared with those from conventional imaging strategies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The recent development of β-sheet binding agents including FDDNP, PIB, SB-13, BF-227 and BAY94-9172 enables the non-invasive detection of amyloid deposition in the brain. These agents would be useful for the early and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, patient selection for disease-modifying therapeutic trials and monitoring the effect of anti-amyloid therapy. Also, monitoring neurotransmitter function contributes to the differential diagnosis of dementia and refinement of treatment protocols. New targets for molecular imaging are focusing on protein misfolding diseases associated with the neurotoxic deposition of aggregated tau, α-synuclein and prion proteins.
authors.affiliation: Tohoku University, Pharmacology, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Nobuyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Okamura
authors.forename: Michelle T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Fodero-Tavoletti
authors.forename: Yukitsuka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kudo
authors.forename: Christopher C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Rowe
authors.forename: Shozo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Furumoto
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Arai
authors.forename: Colin L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Masters
authors.forename: Kazuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yanai
authors.forename: Victor L
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Villemagne