scholarly journals Supervised clustering for TSPO PET imaging

Author(s):  
Julia Schubert ◽  
Matteo Tonietto ◽  
Federico Turkheimer ◽  
Paolo Zanotti-Fregonara ◽  
Mattia Veronese

Abstract Purpose This technical note seeks to act as a practical guide for implementing a supervised clustering algorithm (SVCA) reference region approach and to explain the main strengths and limitations of the technique in the context of 18-kilodalton translocator protein (TSPO) positron emission tomography (PET) studies in experimental medicine. Background TSPO PET is the most widely used imaging technique for studying neuroinflammation in vivo in humans. Quantifying neuroinflammation with PET can be a challenging and invasive procedure, especially in frail patients, because it often requires blood sampling from an arterial catheter. A widely used alternative to arterial sampling is SVCA, which identifies the voxels with minimal specific binding in the PET images, thus extracting a pseudo-reference region for non-invasive quantification. Unlike other reference region approaches, SVCA does not require specification of an anatomical reference region a priori, which alleviates the limitation of TSPO contamination in anatomically-defined reference regions in individuals with underlying inflammatory processes. Furthermore, SVCA can be applied to any TSPO PET tracer across different neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions, providing noninvasivequantification of TSPO expression. Methods We provide an overview of the development of SVCA as well as step-by-step instructions for implementing SVCA with suggestions for specific settings. We review the literature on SVCAapplications using first- and second- generation TSPO PET tracers and discuss potential clinically relevant limitations and applications. Conclusions The correct implementation of SVCA can provide robust and reproducible estimates of brain TSPO expression. This review encourages the standardisation of SVCA methodology in TSPO PET analysis, ultimately aiming to improve replicability and comparability across study sites.

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel García-Lorenzo ◽  
Sonia Lavisse ◽  
Claire Leroy ◽  
Catriona Wimberley ◽  
Benedetta Bodini ◽  
...  

There is a great need for a non-invasive methodology enabling the quantification of translocator protein overexpression in PET clinical imaging. [18F]DPA-714 has emerged as a promising translocator protein radiotracer as it is fluorinated, highly specific and returned reliable quantification using arterial input function. Cerebellum gray matter was proposed as reference region for simplified quantification; however, this method cannot be used when inflammation involves cerebellum. Here we adapted and validated a supervised clustering (supervised clustering algorithm (SCA)) for [18F]DPA-714 analysis. Fourteen healthy subjects genotyped for translocator protein underwent an [18F]DPA-714 PET, including 10 with metabolite-corrected arterial input function and three for a test–retest assessment. Two-tissue compartmental modelling provided [Formula: see text] estimates that were compared to either [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text] generated by Logan analysis (using supervised clustering algorithm extracted reference region or cerebellum gray matter). The supervised clustering algorithm successfully extracted a pseudo-reference region with similar reliability using classes that were defined using either all subjects, or separated into HAB and MAB subjects. [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] were highly correlated (ICC of 0.91 ± 0.05) but [Formula: see text] were ∼26% higher and less variable than [Formula: see text]. Reproducibility was good with 5% variability in the test–retest study. The clustering technique for [18F]DPA-714 provides a simple, robust and reproducible technique that can be used for all neurological diseases.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0271678X2199245
Author(s):  
Bin Ji ◽  
Maiko Ono ◽  
Tomoteru Yamasaki ◽  
Masayuki Fujinaga ◽  
Ming-Rong Zhang ◽  
...  

A substantial and constitutive expression of translocator protein (TSPO) in cerebral blood vessels hampers the sensitive detection of neuroinflammation characterized by greatly induced TSPO expression in activated glia. Here, we conducted in vivo positron emission tomography (PET) and in vitro autoradiographic imaging of normal and TSPO-deficient mouse brains to compare the binding properties of 18F-FEBMP, a relatively novel TSPO radioligand developed for human studies based on its insensitivity to a common polymorphism, with 11C-PK11195, as well as other commonly used TSPO radioligands including 11C-PBR28, 11C-Ac5216 and 18F-FEDAA1106. TSPO in cerebral vessels of normal mice was found to provide a major binding site for 11C-PK11195, 11C-PBR28 and 18F-FEDAA1106, in contrast to no overt specific binding of 18F-FEBMP and 11C-Ac5216 to this vascular component. In addition, 18F-FEBMP yielded PET images of microglial TSPO with a higher contrast than 11C-PK11195 in a tau transgenic mouse modeling Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and allied neurodegenerative tauopathies. Moreover, TSPO expression examined by immunoblotting was significantly increased in AD brains compared with healthy controls, and was well correlated with the autoradiographic binding of 18F-FEBMP but not 11C-PK11195. Our findings support the potential advantage of comparatively glial TSPO-selective radioligands such as 18F-FEBMP for PET imaging of inflammatory glial cells.


Author(s):  
Erik Nutma ◽  
Kelly Ceyzériat ◽  
Sandra Amor ◽  
Stergios Tsartsalis ◽  
Philippe Millet ◽  
...  

AbstractThe 18 kDa translocator protein (TSPO) is a highly conserved protein located in the outer mitochondrial membrane. TSPO binding, as measured with positron emission tomography (PET), is considered an in vivo marker of neuroinflammation. Indeed, TSPO expression is altered in neurodegenerative, neuroinflammatory, and neuropsychiatric diseases. In PET studies, the TSPO signal is often viewed as a marker of microglial cell activity. However, there is little evidence in support of a microglia-specific TSPO expression. This review describes the cellular sources and functions of TSPO in animal models of disease and human studies, in health, and in central nervous system diseases. A discussion of methods of analysis and of quantification of TSPO is also presented. Overall, it appears that the alterations of TSPO binding, their cellular underpinnings, and the functional significance of such alterations depend on many factors, notably the pathology or the animal model under study, the disease stage, and the involved brain regions. Thus, further studies are needed to fully determine how changes in TSPO binding occur at the cellular level with the ultimate goal of revealing potential therapeutic pathways.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Mattner ◽  
M. Quinlivan ◽  
I. Greguric ◽  
T. Pham ◽  
X. Liu ◽  
...  

The high affinity translocator protein (TSPO) ligand 6-chloro-2-(4′-iodophenyl)-3-(N,N-methylethyl)imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine-3-acetamide (CLINME) was radiolabelled with iodine-123 and assessed for its sensitivity for the TSPO in rodents. Moreover neuroinflammatory changes on a unilateral excitotoxic lesion rat model were detected using SPECT imaging. [123I]-CLINME was prepared in 70–80% radiochemical yield. The uptake of [123I]-CLINME was evaluated in rats by biodistribution, competition, and metabolite studies. The unilateral excitotoxic lesion was performed by injection ofα-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid unilaterally into the striatum. The striatum lesion was confirmed and correlated with TSPO expression in astrocytes and activated microglia by immunohistochemistry and autoradiography.In vivostudies with [123I]-CLINME indicated a biodistribution pattern consistent with TPSO distribution and the competition studies with PK11195 and Ro 5-4864 showed that [123I]-CLINME is selective for this site. The metabolite study showed that the extractable radioactivity was unchanged [123I]-CLINME in organs which expresses TSPO. SPECT/CT imaging on the unilateral excitotoxic lesion indicated that the mean ratio uptake in striatum (lesion : nonlesion) was 2.2. Moreover, TSPO changes observed by SPECT imaging were confirmed by immunofluorescence, immunochemistry, and autoradiography. These results indicated that [123I]-CLINME is a promising candidate for the quantification and visualization of TPSO expression in activated astroglia using SPECT.


2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (11) ◽  
pp. 1771-1782 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattia Veronese ◽  
Benedetta Bodini ◽  
Daniel García-Lorenzo ◽  
Marco Battaglini ◽  
Salvatore Bongarzone ◽  
...  

An accurate in vivo measure of myelin content is essential to deepen our insight into the mechanisms underlying demyelinating and dysmyelinating neurological disorders, and to evaluate the effects of emerging remyelinating treatments. Recently [11C]PIB, a positron emission tomography (PET) tracer originally conceived as a beta-amyloid marker, has been shown to be sensitive to myelin changes in preclinical models and humans. In this work, we propose a reference-region methodology for the voxelwise quantification of brain white-matter (WM) binding for [11C]PIB. This methodology consists of a supervised procedure for the automatic extraction of a reference region and the application of the Logan graphical method to generate distribution volume ratio (DVR) maps. This approach was assessed on a test–retest group of 10 healthy volunteers using a high-resolution PET tomograph. The [11C]PIB PET tracer binding was shown to be up to 23% higher in WM compared with gray matter, depending on the image reconstruction. The DVR estimates were characterized by high reliability (outliers < 1%) and reproducibility (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) > 0.95). [11C]PIB parametric maps were also found to be significantly correlated ( R2 > 0.50) to mRNA expressions of the most represented proteins in the myelin sheath. On the contrary, no correlation was found between [11C]PIB imaging and nonmyelin-associated proteins.


2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 230-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abraham Martín ◽  
Raphaël Boisgard ◽  
Benoit Thézé ◽  
Nadja Van Camp ◽  
Bertrand Kuhnast ◽  
...  

Focal cerebral ischemia leads to an inflammatory reaction involving an overexpression of the peripheral benzodiazepine receptor (PBR)/18-kDa translocator protein (TSPO) in the cerebral monocytic lineage (microglia and monocyte) and in astrocytes. Imaging of PBR/TSPO by positron emission tomography (PET) using radiolabeled ligands can document inflammatory processes induced by cerebral ischemia. We performed in vivo PET imaging with [18F]DPA-714 to determine the time course of PBR/TSPO expression over several days after induction of cerebral ischemia in rats. In vivo PET imaging showed significant increase in DPA ( N,N-diethyl-2-(2-(4-(2-fluoroethoxy)phenyl)-5,7-dimethylpyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidin-3-yl)acetamide) uptake on the injured side compared with that in the contralateral area on days 7, 11, 15, and 21 after ischemia; the maximal binding value was reached 11 days after ischemia. In vitro autoradiography confirmed these in vivo results. In vivo and in vitro [18F]DPA-714 binding was displaced from the lesion by PK11195 and DPA-714. Immunohistochemistry showed increased PBR/TSPO expression, peaking at day 11 in cells expressing microglia/macrophage antigens in the ischemic area. At later times, a centripetal migration of astrocytes toward the lesion was observed, promoting the formation of an astrocytic scar. These results show that [18F]DPA-714 provides accurate quantitative information of the time course of PBR/TSPO expression in experimental stroke.


1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 358-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-E. Litton ◽  
H. Hall ◽  
S. Pauli

In the determination of specific binding in receptor binding techniques in vitro as well as in vivo, determination of the nonspecific binding as well as the free component is of crucial importance. If a low proportion of specific binding is included when determining the nonspecific binding, relatively large errors may be obtained. In the present study, benzodiazepine (BZ) receptor binding in the human brain was determined in vivo using position emission tomography (PET) by applying a saturation procedure using [11C]flumazenil as an example of this problem. Analysis of the errors in Bmax and KD obtained using Scatchard analysis in PET was performed using a priori information from in vitro [3H]flumazenil binding in the pons, used normally as a reference region in BZ receptor binding studies. Even if the density of BZ receptors in the reference region pons is only 2% compared to that in the frontal cortex, this small proportion of specific binding sites will result in a 10% error in the Bmax and KD values. Simulation of a number of Scatchard plots was performed at varying ratios between the nonspecific and the specific binding.


2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (8) ◽  
pp. 1949-1960 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolien Schaeverbeke ◽  
Sofie Celen ◽  
Julie Cornelis ◽  
Alicja Ronisz ◽  
Kim Serdons ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose In vivo tau-PET tracer retention in the anterior temporal lobe of patients with semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (SV PPA) has consistently been reported. This is unexpected as the majority of these patients have frontotemporal lobar degeneration TDP (FTLD-TDP). Methods We conducted an in vitro [18F]AV1451 autoradiography binding study in five cases with a clinical diagnosis of SV PPA constituting the range of pathologies (i.e., three FTLD-TDP, one Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and one Pick’s disease (PiD)). Binding was compared with two controls without neurodegeneration, two typical AD, one corticobasal syndrome with underlying AD, and one frontotemporal dementia behavioral variant with FTLD-TDP. The effect of blocking with the authentic reference material and with the MAO-B inhibitor deprenyl was assessed. Immunohistochemistry was performed on adjacent cryosections. Results Absence of specific [18F]AV1451 binding was observed for all three SV PPA FTLD-TDP cases. The absence of binding in controls as well as the successful blocking with authentic AV1451 in cases with tauopathy demonstrated specificity of the [18F]AV1451 signal for tau. The specific [18F]AV1451 binding was highest in AD, followed by PiD. This binding colocalized with the respective tau lesions and could not be blocked by deprenyl. Similar pilot findings were obtained with [18F]THK5351. Conclusion In vitro autoradiography showed no [18F]AV1451 binding in SV PPA due to FTLD-TDP, while specific binding was present in SV PPA due to AD and PiD. The discrepancy between in vitro and in vivo findings remains to be explained. The discordance is not related to [18F]AV1451 idiosyncrasies as [18F]THK5351 findings were similar.


1999 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 1376-1384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Koeppe ◽  
Kirk A. Frey ◽  
David E. Kuhl ◽  
Michael R. Kilbourn

Previous studies have demonstrated the utility of [nC]dihydrotetrabenazine ([11C]DTBZ) as a ligand for in vivo imaging of the vesicular monoamine transporter system. The (+)-isomer has a high affinity (approximately 1 nmol/L) for the vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT2) binding site, whereas the (–)-isomer has an extremely low affinity (approximately 2 μmol/L). Efforts to model dynamic (+)-[11C]DTBZ data demonstrate the difficulty in separating the specific binding component from the free plus nonspecific component of the total positron emission tomography (PET) measure. The authors' previous*** PET work, as well as in vitro studies, indicate that there is little specific VMAT2 binding in neocortical regions. However, precise determination of in vivo binding levels have not been made, leaving important questions unanswered. At one extreme, is there sufficient specific binding in cortex or other extrastriate regions to be estimated reliably with PET? At the other extreme, is there sufficiently little binding in cortex so that it can be used as a reference region representing nonsaturable tracer uptake? The authors address these questions using paired studies with both active (+) and inactive (–) stereoisomers of [11C]DTBZ. Six normal control subjects were scanned twice, 2 hours apart, after injections of 16 mCi of (+)- and (–)-[11C]DTBZ (order counter-balanced). Three-dimensional PET acquisition consisted of 15 frames over 60 minutes for each scan. Arterial samples were acquired throughout, plasma counted, and corrected for radiolabeled metabolites. Analysis of specific binding was assessed by comparison of total distribution volume measures from the (+)- and (–)-[11C]DTBZ scans. The authors' findings indicate that only approximately 5% of the cortical signal in (+)-[11C]DTBZ scans results from binding to VMAT2 sites. The strongest extrastriatal signal comes from the midbrain regions where approximately 30% of the PET measure results from specific binding. The authors conclude that (1) the density of VMAT2 binding sites in cortical regions is not high enough to be quantified reliably with DTBZ PET, and (2) binding does appear to be low enough so that cortex can be used as a free plus nonspecific reference region for striatum.


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