The future of functional imaging in patients with suspected Alzheimer’s dementia
If neurological and neurodegenerative diseases could be detected before the onset of severe symptoms and treated with medication at an early stage, many people could be helped. The most common neurodegenerative dementia is Alzheimer’s disease. It develops as a result of the formation of beta-amyloid oligomers and other misfolded proteins (tau) in the brain and leads to progressive memory loss. Neuroimaging scanners and, in particular, positron emission tomography (PET) systems are important for diagnosing this disease, as they can visualize the misfolded proteins. However, these imaging diagnostic methods are cumbersome and expensive: a PET scanner today fills a large room and costs millions of Swiss francs. Because of these hurdles, the PET diagnostic procedure tends to be used late and rarely, which reduces the chances of early detection. Neurological centers, hospitals with special nuclear medicine technology and doctors in neurological practices would like simpler systems to be able to diagnose Alzheimer’s dementia reliably, cost-effectively and with little effort. This is important as the first drugs have been approved in the USA that have been proven to slow down Alzheimer’s disease.
The company Positrigo has recognized this problem. Initially, a prototype of a cheaper and more compact neuroimaging scanner, the BPET, was developed while the founders were working at the Institute of Particle Physics at ETH Zurich. They set themselves the goal of developing a new technology based on state-of-the-art microchips. We wrote an article about this prototype for the 1/2021 issue of “Einblick” magazine. The Positrigo team, led by founders Max Ahnen and Jannis Fischer, has largely shrunk the scanner system to make functional brain imaging more efficient, economical and accessible. This should also facilitate research in diagnostics and therapy monitoring and support the biomedical development of new therapies.
In winter 2020/2021, Positrigo was able to install the BPET prototype in the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the University Hospital Zurich for the ExploreBPET study and validate its functionality. Over the last few years, the BPET has been further developed by the Positrigo team into the NeuroLF scanner. Compared to its prototypes, and above all to other PET systems, the NeuroLF is easier to operate. The detector ring of the NeuroLF scanner is easily adjustable and the patient positioning system offers good patient comfort. One aim of the NeuroLF system is to be cost-effective and practical. Neurological and neurodegenerative diseases can be detected and potential therapies can be initiated through the imaging and analysis of this scanner. A short demonstration of this scanner is available here.
The compact NeuroLF scanner is currently being tested in hospitals in Europe and soon in the USA. If many patients worldwide can benefit from Alzheimer’s therapies in the foreseeable future, Alzheimer’s dementia, which is costly to care for and treat, should be effectively curbed if the precise image-based diagnosis that goes with it also becomes simpler and more practical.
Links:
Positrigo: https://www.positrigo.com
To the magazine “Einblick”: https://www.technopark.ch/news/zeitschrift-einblick/