Microscopy and Computers Image Alzheimer's Plaque

Researchers at Duke University (Durham, NC, USA) have designed new high-resolution magnetic resonance microscopy (MRM) technology in order to create detailed 3-D images of centimeter-wide samples of brain tissue from Alzheimer's patients.

The researchers removed tiny plugs of brain tissue from Alzheimer's patients who had agreed to have an autopsy after their death, so that brain chemistry in their tissues would still be fresh. To image plaque inside these samples, the research team used a specially engineered magnetic coil that could come as close to the tissue as possible. They then took hundreds of individual images while rotating the sample, so that a computer could blend all of the images together in a 3-D portrait of brain plaque.

The research team says this is the first step toward noninvasive detection of plaque in Alzheimer's patients. The team hopes to find the answer to the central enigma in Alzheimer's disease: which comes first, changes in behavior or the buildup of plaque? By using the same technique on mice genetically altered to produce plaque in their brains, the effect of experimental drugs to treat Alzheimer's could be tested as the disease progresses.

"The dream of every brain researcher is to be able to follow, over time, both development of brain diseases and the effects of drugs designed to combat them,” said Helene Benveniste, an anesthesiologist and brain researcher at Duke.




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