Francesca Capotosti, PhD, AC Immune SA, Lausanne, Switzerland, highlights the development of novel tau- and alpha-synuclein-PET tracers as major advancements in the neuroimaging space. Accurate detection of these pathological proteins would aid in diagnosis and monitoring of numerous neurodegenerative disorders, including non-Alzheimer’s tauopathies, Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body dementia, and multiple systems atrophy. Issues with lower affinity and off-target binding has limited tau pathology visualization in non-Alzheimer’s tauopathies. However, new tracers appear to bind specifically to the 4R tau deposits present in these diseases, such as progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD). These findings suggest specific targeting of tau deposits in vivo is feasible, which would aid in diagnosis and clinical trial conduction, and could shed more light on the role of tau deposition in tauopathies. This interview took place at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2022 in San Diego, CA.
