Study validates Pittsburgh Compound-B in identifying Alzheimer's disease brain toxins

Beta-amyloid plaques, the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, are just one type of amyloid structure that can be found in diseased brains. However, other forms of amyloid are not thought to be specific for Alzheimer’s, or they have significantly different roles in the pathogenesis of this disease. To further validate the binding properties of PiB to beta-amyloid and the presence of Alzheimer’s disease, sophisticated laboratory studies were performed on the autopsied brains of 27 other patients with confirmed Alzheimer’s disease.

“In every subject, and with each test that we performed, our results supported the idea that PiB binds almost exclusively to beta-amyloid, which means that we can, with confidence, look to PiB to indicate the troublesome beta-amyloid deposits in brains of living patients,” said the lead author Milos Ikonomovic, M.D., assistant professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh.

“This patient who selflessly and generously agreed to PiB PET scanning and who gave us the gift of her brain has enabled us to compare what we detected during her life to what we confirmed after her death. The findings from our study of her brain, coupled with the further confirmation of the other 27 brains, tell us without a doubt that PiB binds to beta-amyloid and that it is a reliable indicator of the presence of Alzheimer’s disease in those who are suffering its cruel effects,” said Dr. Klunk.

“This work is an important step forward in the development of new tools for both research and clinical care,” noted Neil Buckholtz, Ph.D., chief of the Dementias of Aging Branch of the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, which supported the study. “It provides additional evidence validating the use of PiB to identify beta-amyloid deposits in living individuals and advancing the potential use of PiB as an outcome measure in clinical trials of anti-beta-amyloid therapeutics.”

It is estimated that up to 4.5 million people in the United States have Alzheimer’s, including 50 percent of those older than age 85 and 10 percent of those over age 65. The number of those affected is expected to triple over the next 50 years.

In addition to Drs. DeKosky, Ikonomovic, Klunk and Mathis, the research team included Eric Abrahamson, Ph.D., Julie Price, Ph.D., Nicholas Tsopelas, M.D., Brian Lopresti, B.S., Scott Ziolko, B.S., Wenzhu Bi, B.S., William Paljug, M.Sc., Manik Debnath, M.S., Caroline Hope, M.Sc., Barbara Isanski, M.Sc., and Ronald Hamilton, M.D., all of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Alzheimer’s Association, The U.S. Department of Energy and the Dana Foundation.