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

University of Pittsburgh researchers report findings in journal Brain

PITTSBURGH, March 26 – A groundbreaking study conducted by University of Pittsburgh Alzheimer’s disease researchers reported in the journal Brain (currently online) confirms that Pittsburgh Compound-B (PiB) binds to the telltale beta-amyloid deposits found in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The finding is a significant step toward enabling clinicians to provide a definitive diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in living patients. For a free-access link to the PDF version of the online article, please click here.

Until now, the beta-amyloid deposits to which PiB binds have been confirmed, without question, only in the autopsied brains of patients afflicted with Alzheimer’s. The new findings, which correlate PiB-identified beta-amyloid deposits from living patients to their post-mortem autopsy results, will ultimately aid in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, help clinicians monitor the progression of the disease and further the development of potential treatments.

“This is final confirmation of what we have believed all along – that Pittsburgh Compound-B allows us to accurately assess the amount of beta-amyloid plaques in brains of people afflicted with Alzheimer’s,” said senior author Steven DeKosky, M.D., professor of neurology, psychiatry, neurobiology and human genetics and director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh.

Invented and developed by Pitt researchers Chester Mathis, Ph.D., professor of radiology and pharmaceutical sciences, and William Klunk, M.D., Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and neurology, PiB is a radioactive compound that, when coupled with positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, can be injected into the bloodstream to enable researchers to visualize the brains of people with the memory-stealing illness and see the location and distribution of the beta-amyloid plaque deposits associated with Alzheimer’s. The distinguishing factor between Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias is the presence of these amyloid plaques, which are thought to kill brain cells.

In the study, a 63-year-old woman with a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s underwent PiB PET imaging. The PET scan showed significant retention of PiB in distinct regions of her brain. Upon her death 10 months later, her autopsied brain was analyzed using histological and biochemical assays to detect a variety of amyloid deposits, including the beta-amyloid plaques. The regions of her brain where the PET scans had identified the highest PiB levels before death correlated precisely with the regions of high beta-amyloid plaque concentrations in her autopsied brain. To view a PiB PET image, click here.