PET imaging of reactive astrocytes in neurological disorders

Yu Liu; Han Jiang; Xiyi Qin; Mei Tian; Hong Zhang

doi:10.1007/s00259-021-05640-5

PET imaging of reactive astrocytes in neurological disorders

Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2022 Mar;49(4):1275-1287. doi: 10.1007/s00259-021-05640-5. Epub 2021 Dec 7.

Authors

Yu Liu^{1

2

3}, Han Jiang⁴, Xiyi Qin^{1

2

3}, Mei Tian^{5

6

7}, Hong Zhang^{8

9

10

11

12}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 88 Jiefang Road, Hangzhou, 310009, Zhejiang, China.
² Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Imaging of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China.
⁴ PET-CT Center, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital, Fuzhou, 350001, China.
⁵ Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 88 Jiefang Road, Hangzhou, 310009, Zhejiang, China. meitian@zju.edu.cn.
⁶ Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. meitian@zju.edu.cn.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Imaging of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China. meitian@zju.edu.cn.
⁸ Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 88 Jiefang Road, Hangzhou, 310009, Zhejiang, China. hzhang21@zju.edu.cn.
⁹ Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. hzhang21@zju.edu.cn.
¹⁰ Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Imaging of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China. hzhang21@zju.edu.cn.
¹¹ College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. hzhang21@zju.edu.cn.
¹² Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. hzhang21@zju.edu.cn.

Abstract

The reactive astrocytes manifest molecular, structural, and functional remodeling in injury, infection, or diseases of the CNS, which play a critical role in the pathological mechanism of neurological diseases. A growing need exists for dependable approach to better characterize the activation of astrocyte in vivo. As an advanced molecular imaging technology, positron emission tomography (PET) has the potential for visualizing biological activities at the cellular levels. In the review, we summarized the PET visualization strategies for reactive astrocytes and discussed the applications of astrocyte PET imaging in neurological diseases. Future studies are needed to pay more attention to the development of specific imaging agents for astrocytes and further improve our exploration of reactive astrocytes in various diseases.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease (AD); Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); Monoamine oxidases-B (MAO-B); Multiple sclerosis (MS); Parkinson’s disease (PD); Positron emission tomography (PET); Reactive astrocytes.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Alzheimer Disease* / pathology
Astrocytes / pathology
Humans
Nervous System Diseases* / diagnostic imaging
Positron-Emission Tomography
Tomography, X-Ray Computed