Metabolic Imaging in Neurodegenerative Diseases

It is well acknowledged that in neurodegenerative diseases there is a long period of time before diagnosable signs and symptoms emerge. Nevertheless, neuropathological changes, metabolic and functional alterations of specific brain areas may occur many years, or even decades, before the onset of first clinical manifestation. This early premanifest period gives us the unique chance to investigate and understand early pathobiological changes and may provide a window for early therapeutic intervention before irreversible brain damage has taken place.

Major focus of this project is - in the context of clinical features, genetics and fluid biomarkers - the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques such as sodium imaging, and posphor/proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), to identify metabolic imaging biomarkers in different states of neurodegenerative diseases progression. The metabolic biomarkers, reflecting dynamic aspects of cellular metabolism in  Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Huntington’s disease (HD) will be complemented by standard structural and functional MRI methods.

The characterization of metabolic-functional-structural patterns in healthy controls and patients in the early stages of the neurodegenerative diseases, will help to detect the disease-specific starting points and provide biomarker candidates, which can be used to monitor disease progression and treatment effects in clinical trials.