Quantitative PET imaging and modeling of molecular blood-brain barrier permeability
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Neuroimaging of blood-brain barrier permeability has been instrumental in identifying its broad involvement in neurological and systemic diseases. However, current methods evaluate the blood-brain barrier mainly as a structural barrier. Here we developed a non-invasive positron emission tomography method in humans to measure the blood-brain barrier permeability of molecular radiotracers that cross the blood-brain barrier through its molecule-specific transport mechanism. Our method uses high-temporal resolution dynamic imaging and kinetic modeling for multiparametric imaging and quantification of the blood-brain barrier permeability-surface area product of molecular radiotracers. We show, in humans, our method can resolve blood-brain barrier permeability across three radiotracers and demonstrate its utility in studying brain aging and brain-body interactions in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver inflammation. Our method opens new directions to effectively study the molecular permeability of the human blood-brain barrier in vivo using the large catalogue of available molecular positron emission tomography tracers.
Source: Nature Communications
Language: English
Subfield: Neurology
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $6,990
Funders: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Servier, National Institutes of Health, University of California, Davis, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
OpenAlex ID: W4408971885