TY  - JOUR
AU  - Crook, Harry
AU  - Franzmeier, Nicolai
AU  - Rahmouni, Nesrine
AU  - Gnoerich, Johannes
AU  - Fryer, Tim D
AU  - Hong, Young T
AU  - Roemer-Cassiano, Sebastian N
AU  - Palleis, Carla
AU  - Strauss, Alexandra
AU  - Jones, P Simon
AU  - Aigbirhio, Franklin I
AU  - Hopewell, Robert
AU  - Rauchmann, Boris Stephan
AU  - Massarweh, Gassan
AU  - Perneczky, Robert
AU  - Levin, Johannes
AU  - Höglinger, Günter U
AU  - Rowe, James B
AU  - O'Brien, John T
AU  - Rosa-Neto, Pedro
AU  - Brendel, Matthias
AU  - Malpetti, Maura
TI  - Comparing and combining TSPO-PET tracers in tauopathies.
JO  - European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging
VL  - 53
IS  - 3
SN  - 1619-7070
CY  - Heidelberg [u.a.]
PB  - Springer-Verl.
M1  - DZNE-2026-00137
SP  - 2083 - 2098
PY  - 2026
AB  - Neuroinflammation is a key pathological driver in neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). Positron emission tomography (PET) with tracers targeting the translocator protein (TSPO) enables the in vivo quantification of microgliosis. TSPO tracers have shown similar disease-specific patterns across cohorts. However, direct quantitative comparisons between commonly used TSPO-PET tracers in tauopathies have not been performed. Here, we apply a TSPO-PET standardization pipeline across clinically matched AD cohorts and PSP cohorts, to quantify, compare and combine multi-centre TSPO-PET data.Patients with PSP were scanned with either [11C]PK11195 or [18F]GE-180 at one of two centres, while patients with AD and control participants were scanned with either [11C]PK11195, [18F]GE-180 or [11C]PBR28 at one of three centres. A standardised pre-processing pipeline was implemented and participant standardised uptake volume ratio (SUVR) values were z-scored using tracer-specific control participant values. In a data-driven approach, dissimilarity analyses were employed to assess differences between tracers across clinically matched cohorts.In PSP, dissimilarity analysis suggested that [11C]PK11195 and [18F]GE-180 binding patterns were comparable following standardisation. In AD, comparability across tracers was less robust, with [11C]PK11195 and [18F]GE-180 being most comparable, followed by [18F]GE-180 vs. [11C]PBR28, then by [11C]PK11195 vs. [11C]PBR28.The pipeline was effective at harmonising TSPO-PET tracers and standardising the regional quantification of neuroinflammation in clinically matched cohorts of PSP, while the standardisation pipeline results were less robust across AD cohorts.
KW  - Humans
KW  - Positron-Emission Tomography: methods
KW  - Positron-Emission Tomography: standards
KW  - Receptors, GABA: metabolism
KW  - Male
KW  - Female
KW  - Aged
KW  - Middle Aged
KW  - Radioactive Tracers
KW  - Tauopathies: diagnostic imaging
KW  - Tauopathies: metabolism
KW  - Alzheimer Disease: diagnostic imaging
KW  - Alzheimer Disease: metabolism
KW  - Radiopharmaceuticals
KW  - Carbazoles
KW  - Isoquinolines
KW  - Alzheimer’s disease. (Other)
KW  - Neuroinflammation (Other)
KW  - Positron emission tomography (Other)
KW  - Progressive supranuclear palsy (Other)
KW  - Translocator protein (Other)
KW  - Receptors, GABA (NLM Chemicals)
KW  - TSPO protein, human (NLM Chemicals)
KW  - Radioactive Tracers (NLM Chemicals)
KW  - PK 11195 (NLM Chemicals)
KW  - GE-180 (NLM Chemicals)
KW  - Radiopharmaceuticals (NLM Chemicals)
KW  - Carbazoles (NLM Chemicals)
KW  - Isoquinolines (NLM Chemicals)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:41114734
DO  - DOI:10.1007/s00259-025-07579-3
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/285003
ER  -