PET Imaging Agent for Alzheimer's Disease Provides Automated Measurement of Glucose Metabolism

A new diagnostic imaging advance allows the precise, automated measurement of glucose metabolism in the hippocampus, a brain structure that is crucial new memory formation and which is affected very early in Alzheimer's disease (AD).

The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF; New York, NY, USA) is providing a grant of US$200,000 to Abiant Inc. (Deerfield, IL, USA) for the development of a highly accurate diagnostic imaging agent for AD. Abiant is focused on the application of neuroimaging to improve the diagnosis and treatment of neurologic and neuropsychiatric disorders.

Abiant's diagnostic approach combines key advances in the analysis of positron emission tomography (PET) images of the brain. The first of these was developed by Lisa Mosconi, Ph.D., Henry Rusinek, Ph.D., and Wai Tsui, M.S., from the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine's Center for Brain Health (New York, NY, USA), directed by Mony de Leon, Ed.D. Abiant is combining this with other major advances in statistical analysis tools that consolidate information from many regions in the brain into measurable patterns of disease progression. In studies using patients from academic centers worldwide, these approaches have been able to predict future decline, and to distinguish between types of dementia with very high accuracy.

"Abiant's diagnostic approach provides a potential path to clinician adoption and use of a powerful aid in early, accurate diagnosis that has not yet been achieved,” commented Howard Fillit, M.D., ADDF's executive director. "The grant will enable Abiant to further validate and translate its approaches toward a beneficial tool for the Alzheimer's disease community.”

"We are very pleased that ADDF is helping to fund our development efforts,” commented Dawn Matthews, chief executive officer of Abiant. "Not only will this help to accelerate our progress, but the ADDF will be a valuable partner in the guidance of our work toward broad clinical use.”

Dr. de Leon added, "PET imaging measurement of activity in the brain, and in particular the hippocampus, can provide a powerful biomarker for the early and accurate detection of Alzheimer's disease. We are very pleased to see this step toward the translation of our research advances to clinical use.”

ADDF's mission is to accelerate the discovery and development of drugs to prevent, treat, and cure Alzheimer's disease, related dementias, and cognitive aging. The organization awards grants to leading scientists conducting breakthrough drug-discovery research.

Abiant uses proprietary image analysis methods and software to provide sensitive biomarkers of drug effects and disease progression. This imaging information is intended to accelerate and improve accuracy of decision making in both disease diagnosis and drug development. Abiant has exclusively licensed technologies for accurate, automated measurement of information in PET images from NYU School of Medicine. The company conducts imaging studies on novel pharmaceutical compounds for drug development companies.

Related Links:
Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation
Abiant
New York University School of Medicine