Abstract
The dearth of effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the largest public health issues worldwide, costing hundreds of billions of dollars per year. From a therapeutic standpoint, research efforts to date have met with strikingly little clinical success. One major issue is that trials begin after substantial pathological change has occurred, and it is increasingly clear that the most effective treatment regimens will need to be administered earlier in the disease process. In order to identify individuals within the long preclinical phase of AD who are likely to progress to dementia, improvements are required in biomarker development. One potential area of research that might prove fruitful in this regard is the in vivo detection of brainstem pathology. The brainstem is known to undergo pathological changes very early and progressively in AD. With an updated and harmonized AD research framework, and emerging advances in neuroimaging technology, the potential to leverage knowledge of brainstem pathology into biomarkers for AD will be discussed.
Document Type
Review
Publication Date
9-11-2018
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2018.00266
Funding Information
This work was supported in part by the Weston Brain Institute and National Institutes of Health (F32-AG058456).
Repository Citation
Braun, David J. and Van Eldik, Linda J., "In vivo Brainstem Imaging in Alzheimer’s Disease: Potential for Biomarker Development" (2018). Neuroscience Faculty Publications. 52.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/neurobio_facpub/52
Included in
Bioimaging and Biomedical Optics Commons, Diseases Commons, Geriatrics Commons, Medical Neurobiology Commons, Neurology Commons, Neurosciences Commons
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, v. 10, 266, p. 1-8.
© 2018 Braun and Van Eldik.
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