In Vivo Imaging of Cortical Inflammation and Subpial Pathology in Multiple Sclerosis by Combined PET and MRI
Abstract
Post-mortem studies in multiple sclerosis (MS) suggested that cortical demyelinating lesions, which are hardly detected in vivo on conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, are an important correlate of disability, and are driven by organized neuroinflammation with the activation of microglia. Activated microglia upregulate expression of the 18kDa translocator protein (TSPO), which can be imaged in vivo with [11C]PBR28, a second generation TSPO ligand. In this study, we combine ultra-high field 7 Tesla (T) MRI, which has demonstrated greater sensitivity to cortical lesions than conventional MRI, with [11C]PBR28 positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of activated microglia to assess whether more severe structural cortical pathology in MS is related to the presence of neuroinflammation. Our initial findings show that high-resolution [ C]-PBR28 PET imaging is able to detect in vivo diffuse inflammation in different brain tissue compartments in MS, particularly in cortex and cortical sulci. Additionally, the degree of inflammation in cortical sulci is associated with neurological disability, suggesting that this pattern of cortical disease can be the pathological basis for disease progression in many MS cases.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA611615
Entities
People
- Caterina Mainero
Organizations
- Massachusetts General Hospital