title: Tau PET: the next frontier in molecular imaging of dementia.
abstract: We have arrived at an exciting juncture in dementia research: the second major pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD)-tau-can now be seen for the first time in the living human brain. The major proteinopathies in AD include amyloid-β plaques and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) made of hyperphosphorylated paired helical filament (PHF) tau. Since its advent more than a decade ago, amyloid PET imaging has revolutionized the field of dementia research, enabling more confident diagnosis of the likely pathology in patients with a variety of clinical dementia syndromes, paving the way for the identification of people with preclinical or prodromal AD pathology, and serving as a minimally invasive molecular readout in clinical trials of putative disease-modifying interventions. Now that we are on the brink of a second revolution in molecular imaging in dementia, it is worth considering the likely potential impact of this development on the field.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology,Frontotemporal Disorders Unit,Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School,Charlestown,Massachusetts,USA.
authors.forename: Chenjie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology,Frontotemporal Disorders Unit,Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School,Charlestown,Massachusetts,USA.
authors.forename: Bradford C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Dickerson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D003704:Dementia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D057054:Molecular Imaging; D016874:Neurofibrillary Tangles / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D058225:Plaque, Amyloid; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D016875:tau Proteins