Synaptic density in carriers of C9orf72 mutations: a [11C]UCB-J PET study
Publication: Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology
Maura Malpetti, , Negin Holland, P. Simon Jones, Rong Ye, , Thomas E. Cope, Tim D. Fryer, Young T. Hong, George Savulich, Timothy Rittman, Luca Passamonti, Elijah Mak, Franklin I. Aigbirhio, John T. O’Brien, & James B. Rowe
16 June 2021
Summary
Brain cells communicate via special connections called synapses. The loss of these synapses is common and early in dementia. We can now measure the amount of synapses across the brain, in people, with a brain scanning technique called positron emission tomography.
Researchers studied healthy adults who were at risk of developing dementia because of a mutation in a gene called C9orf72. They found that synapse loss was already present many years before symptoms were expected, especially in a part of the brain called the thalamus. Such early pre-symptomatic changes are vital to measure, in order to test preventative treatments to step dementia in people at high genetic risk