Administration of Aripiprazole Alleviates Memory Impairment and Restores Damaged Glutamatergic System in 5xFAD Mice.

Purpose: Many patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) also have psychosis, and it has been reported that these patients have more severely impaired cognitive functions than patients without psychosis. The glutamatergic system in the brain is known to play an important role in memory and learning in the neural circuits. However, there has been limited research on how antipsychotic drugs affect the glutamatergic system of AD.

Emerging role of vascular burden in AT(N) classification in individuals with Alzheimer's and concomitant cerebrovascular burdens.

Objectives: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterised by amyloid-beta accumulation (A), tau aggregation (T) and neurodegeneration (N). Vascular (V) burden has been found concomitantly with AD pathology and has synergistic effects on cognitive decline with AD biomarkers. We determined whether cognitive trajectories of AT(N) categories differed according to vascular (V) burden.

Effect of developmental stress on the neuronal circuits related to excitation-inhibition balance and mood in adulthood.

Introduction: Traumatic events in early life have a deleterious effect on the development of normal brain developments, which may be a cause of various psychiatric disorders in adulthood. Most prior studies focused on molecular biological aspects, and research on functional changes in neural circuits is still limited. We aimed to elucidate the effect of early life stress on excitation-inhibition and serotonergic neurotransmission in the adulthood using non-invasive functional molecular imaging (positron emission tomography, PET).

Amyloid pathology induces dysfunction of systemic neurotransmission in aged APPswe/PS2 mice.

This study aimed to investigate how amyloid pathology affects the functional aspects of neurotransmitter systems in Alzheimer's disease. APPswe/PS2 mice (21 months of age) and wild-type (WT) mice underwent positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). First, we obtained F-FDG and F-florbetaben PET scans to evaluate neuronal integrity and amyloid pathology.

Developmental complex trauma induces the dysfunction of the amygdala-mPFC circuit in the serotonergic and dopaminergic systems.

Developmental complex trauma is strongly associated with various psychiatric disorders in adulthood. Multiple lines of evidence have demonstrated that the amygdala-mPFC circuit regulates emotion and plays an important role in stress reactions. However, most studies on developmental trauma have mainly focused on neurological aspects in biological, behavioral, and structural changes with regard to a single stressor.

Validation of Image Qualities of a Novel Four-Mice Bed PET System as an Oncological and Neurological Analysis Tool.

: Micro-positron emission tomography (micro-PET), a small-animal dedicated PET system, is used in biomedical studies and has the quantitative imaging capabilities of radiotracers. A single-bed system, commonly used in micro-PET, is laborious to use in large-scale studies. Here, we evaluated the image qualities of a multi-bed system.

Evaluation of the Effects of Developmental Trauma on Neurotransmitter Systems Using Functional Molecular Imaging.

Early life stress (ELS) is strongly associated with psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia in adulthood. To date, biological, behavioral, and structural aspects of ELS have been studied extensively, but their functional effects remain unclear. Here, we examined NeuroPET studies of dopaminergic, glutamatergic, and serotonergic systems in ELS animal models.

Evaluation of the neuroprotective effect of taurine in Alzheimer's disease using functional molecular imaging.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder and the leading cause of dementia, but therapeutic treatment options are limited. Taurine has been reported to have neuroprotective properties against dementia, including AD. The present study aimed to investigate the treatment effect of taurine in AD mice by functional molecular imaging.

Evaluation of the Neuroprotective Effect of Microglial Depletion by CSF-1R Inhibition in a Parkinson's Animal Model.

Purpose: Neuroinflammation in Parkinson's disease (PD) is known to play a pivotal role in progression to neuronal degeneration. It has been reported that colony-stimulation factor 1 receptor (CSF-1R) inhibition can effectively deplete microglia. However, its therapeutic efficacy in PD is unclear still now.

Age dependency of mGluR5 availability in 5xFAD mice measured by PET.

The major pathologies of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are amyloid plaques and hyperphosphorylated tau. The deposition of amyloid plaques leads to synaptic dysfunction, neuronal cell death, and cognitive impairment. Among the neurotransmitters, glutamate is the most abundant in the mammalian brain and plays an important role in synaptic plasticity.

Effects of P-gp and Bcrp as brain efflux transporters on the uptake of [ F]FPEB in the murine brain.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the brain uptake of [ F]FPEB is influenced by P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and breast cancer resistance protein (Bcrp) as efflux transporters in rodents. To assess this possible modulation, positron emission tomography studies were performed in animal models of pharmacological or genetic ablation of these transporters. Compared with the control conditions, when P-gp was blocked with tariquidar, there was an 8%-12% increase in the brain uptake of [ F]FPEB.