An Amyloid-β Targeting Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer Probe for In Vivo Detection of Alzheimer's Disease.

Abstract

A reliable and reproducible detection of Aβ deposits would be beneficial for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the present study, the feasibility of applying chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) for Aβ deposit detection using angiopep-2 as a probe was evaluated, and it was demonstrated that CEST could detect angiopep-2 and Aβ-angiopep-2 aggregates in vitro. Furthermore, APP/PS1 mice injected with angiopep-2 exhibited a significantly higher in vivo CEST effect when compared with controls. The distribution of Aβ deposits detected by CEST imaging was consistent with the histological staining results. The present study is the first to report a reliable exogenous CEST probe to noninvasively evaluate Aβ deposits in APP/PS1 mice. Furthermore, these results demonstrate the potential for clinical AD diagnosis and Aβ-targeted drug therapy assessment using CEST imaging with the angiopep-2 probe.