Peter Parbo, MD
Department of Nuclear Medicine & PET Centre 

Title: A PET study of the relationship between microglial activation amyloid-β plaques and tau tangles in early Alzheimer’s disease

Summary:

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause for dementia affecting more than 50,000 people in Denmark. Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease leading to cognitive and behavioural dysfunctions. The aim of this thesis was to examine the inter-relationships between levels and distributions of amyloid plaques, tau tangles and microglial activation, using 11C-PiB, 18F-flortaucipir and 11C-PK11195 positron emission tomography (PET) in prodromal and early clinical Alzheimer’s disease. The cohort is being followed and assessed again after a 2 year interval. Our baseline findings provide in vivo evidence that brain inflammation is an early event in Alzheimer’s disease. Hence, an intervention targeting microglial activation could play a neuroprotective role against Alzheimer’s disease.

Main supervisor: Professor David Brooks, Dept. of Nuclear Medicine & PET Centre, Aarhus University

Chairman: Professor Henning Andersen, Dept. of Neurology, Aarhus University

Examiners:

• Professor Oskar Hansson, Clinical Memory Research Unit, Lund University, Sweden
• Professor Ian Law, Dept. of Clinical Physiology, Nuclear Medicine & PET, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

The defense is public and all are welcome!

For more information, please contact MD PhD student Peter Parbo, e-mail: parbo@au.dk