Feindel Brain and Mind Seminar Series: TSPO PET Imaging – Do We Know It All or Are We Still Learning?

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Adriana Tavares

Reader PET Imaging & Head of preclinical PET Facility, University of Edinburgh

Abstract: Brain inflammation is a hallmark of multiple neurodegenerative, neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases. Therefore, imaging the inflamed brain in living humans is paramount to understand the initiation, development and progression of various diseases of the central nervous system. Over the past four decades, large libraries of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) radiotracers targeting the 18-kDa translocator protein (TSPO) have been developed and proposed for neuroinflammation imaging. Although TSPO is an “old” target in PET imaging, the lack of a radiotracer with suitable in vivo kinetic properties for imaging of the whole human population has hindered the field. Apparently confusing datasets have also casted doubt on TSPO PET. However, recent developments in the field have re-oxygenated TSPO PET imaging and have led us to reflect on whether we know all about TSPO PET? Or are we still learning? During the lecture Adriana Tavares will propose some answers to these fundamental questions, which might enable imaging of the inflamed brain in living humans worldwide.

The Feindel Brain and Mind Seminar Series will advance the vision of Dr. William Feindel (1918–2014), Former Director of the Neuro (1972–1984), to constantly bridge the clinical and research realms. The talks will highlight the latest advances and discoveries in neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience, and neuroimaging.

Speakers will include scientists from across The Neuro, as well as colleagues and collaborators locally and from around the world. The series is intended to provide a virtual forum for scientists and trainees to continue to foster interdisciplinary exchanges on the mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment of brain and cognitive disorders.