In vivo radioligand binding to translocator protein correlates with severity of Alzheimer's disease

Neuroinflammation is a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, but its role in cognitive impairment and its course of development during the disease are largely unknown. To address these unknowns, we used positron emission tomography with ¹¹C-PBR28 to measure translocator protein 18 kDa (TSPO), a putative biomarker for inflammation. Patients with Alzheimer's disease, patients with mild cognitive impairment and older control subjects were also scanned with ¹¹C-Pittsburgh Compound B to measure amyloid burden. Twenty-nine amyloid-positive patients (19 Alzheimer's, 10 mild cognitive impairment) and 13 amyloid-negative control subjects were studied. The primary goal of this study was to determine whether TSPO binding is elevated in patients with Alzheimer's disease, and the secondary goal was to determine whether TSPO binding correlates with neuropsychological measures, grey matter volume, ¹¹C-Pittsburgh Compound B binding, or age of onset. Patients with Alzheimer's disease, but not those with mild cognitive impairment, had greater ¹¹C-PBR28 binding in cortical brain regions than controls. The largest differences were seen in the parietal and temporal cortices, with no difference in subcortical regions or cerebellum. ¹¹C-PBR28 binding inversely correlated with performance on Folstein Mini-Mental State Examination, Clinical Dementia Rating Scale Sum of Boxes, Logical Memory Immediate (Wechsler Memory Scale Third Edition), Trail Making part B and Block Design (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Third Edition) tasks, with the largest correlations observed in the inferior parietal lobule. ¹¹C-PBR28 binding also inversely correlated with grey matter volume. Early-onset (<65 years) patients had greater ¹¹C-PBR28 binding than late-onset patients, and in parietal cortex and striatum ¹¹C-PBR28 binding correlated with lower age of onset. Partial volume corrected and uncorrected results were generally in agreement; however, the correlation between ¹¹C-PBR28 and ¹¹C-Pittsburgh Compound B binding was seen only after partial volume correction. The results suggest that neuroinflammation, indicated by increased ¹¹C-PBR28 binding to TSPO, occurs after conversion of mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease and worsens with disease progression. Greater inflammation may contribute to the precipitous disease course typically seen in early-onset patients. ¹¹C-PBR28 may be useful in longitudinal studies to mark the conversion from mild cognitive impairment or to assess response to experimental treatments of Alzheimer's disease.