Optimizing [11C]Butanol radiosynthesis on a commercially available synthesizer: Efforts towards global dementia neuroimaging
Abstract
Alteration in the blood-brain barrier integrity represents an early pathological process in Alzheimer’s disease, and neuroimaging tools, especially magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) are important for blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity assessment. Unfortunately, these tools are not universally accessible. We first reviewed the literature on the use of these neuroimaging tools in dementia research to provide a global dementia imaging landscape with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa and a perspective on the dementia resources needed to conduct comparable research in these populations. This revealed that MRI density per million population outweighs PET, but MRI may not adequately visualize BBB integrity. While there are emerging MRI techniques for BBB imaging, the sensitivity of these techniques for early detection is unclear. Thus, validating more available MRI with PET gold standards of [15O]water and [11C]butanol reduces the challenges associated with dementia neuroimaging. To enable PET validation studies, we have developed a robust, automated radiosynthesis of [11C]butanol which is free from confounding ethanol in the final injection on a widely available synthesizer. Preliminary imaging studies with the synthesized [11C]butanol via a hybrid PET/MR are reported.