New PET Tricks for Old-Age Disease

ByABC News
December 20, 2006, 2:06 PM

Dec. 21, 2006 — -- Doctors of the future may have an additional tool when it comes to detecting Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles may have devised a new way of looking at patients' brains where they can see the damage that leads to Alzheimer's disease at the molecular level.

Using a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, they were able to peek at the brain and look at the proteins -- the materials that cause the problems -- linked to memory deterioration.

A small study of 83 volunteers published today in the New England Journal of Medicine found that using a PET scan to look for certain proteins associated with Alzheimer's can help differentiate those with Alzheimer's disease from those with mild cognitive impairment.

Unlike with Alzheimer's, the memory and thinking problems associated with mild cognitive impairment are not severe enough to interfere with daily activities.

The authors of the study suggest that this new technique might be helpful in diagnosing Alzheimer's -- which affects an estimated 4.5 million Americans -- and for developing drugs that target the proteins that cause the disease.

Alzheimer's disease is expected to affect as many as 16 million Americans by 2050, as the baby boomers reach the age at which they're most at risk.

"This study will give us an important tool we've been lacking in our search for better understanding and treatment of Alzheimer's," said David Harper, assistant professor of psychology in the psychiatry department at Harvard Medical School. "It could be useful in tracking the effectiveness of several new drugs that directly attack the Alzheimer's disease lesions."

The study also may give doctors a way to see the proteins implicated in the disease.

"This is the first study that claims to 'see' both plaques and tangles," said Dr. Sam Gandy, chair of the Alzheimer's Association's Medical and Scientific Advisory Council and director of the Farber Institute for Neurosciences at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

"This will be a useful addition to the tools we have," Gandy said.