Meeting Banner
Abstract #3759

Magnetization Transfer Contrast MRI as a Diagnostic Tool for Alzheimers Disease

MAGNA25Carlos J. Perez-Torres1, 2, Robia G. Pautler1, 2

1Interdepartmental Program in Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States; 2Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States


Early diagnosis of Alzheimers Disease (AD) remains a critical challenge for the management of this disease. Most work has focused on non-invasive imaging of amyloid beta plaques. However, it is known that amyloid neurotoxicity begins before plaque formation, so techniques are needed that can identify AD before plaque formation. In this work, we apply Magnetization Transfer Contrast (MTC), an MRI methodology already in use clinically. Our results show an increase in MTC signal that predates plaque formation in the Tg2576 mouse model of AD. The source of the MTC signal appears to be Tau and not the expected amyloid beta.