Experimental Imaging Agent Reveals Concussion-linked Brain Disease in Living Brain

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An experimental positron emission tomography (PET) tracer can effectively diagnose concussion-related brain degeneration while a person is still alive, according to a proof-of-concept study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published September 27 in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

Mount Sinai researchers used an experimental imaging agent called [18 F]-T807 (or Avid 1451) with PET to examine the brain of a living, 39-year-old retired National Football League (NFL) player who had experienced 22 concussions and exhibited clinical symptoms consistent with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative brain disease that has been associated with repetitive blows to the head in athletes and soldiers. T807 is designed to latch onto a protein called tau that accumulates in the brain as a result of repetitive traumatic brain injury. When the new imaging agent (or ligand) lights up a PET scan of the brain of a patient showing buildup of tau in a characteristic pattern, the scan result is interpreted as being consistent with CTE. Until now, evidence for CTE pathology has only been possible by examining brain tissue after death.

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