The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is backing a WashU Medicine initiative aimed at monitoring neuroinflammation in the brains of individuals afflicted with Parkinson’s disease. This five-year $3 million grant will enable co-principal investigators Zhude (Will) Tu, PhD, a professor of radiology, and Joel S. Perlmutter, MD, a professor of both neurology and radiology, to employ radiotracers for monitoring inflammation in the brains of those with Parkinson’s disease utilizing PET scans.

Parkinson’s disease ranks as the second-most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder in the U.S., following Alzheimer’s disease. A defining feature of this condition is neuroinflammation, yet there remains limited comprehension of the areas and patterns in which this inflammation propagates within the brain.

Tu, who also serves as the director of the Precision Radiotheranostics Translation Center at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, alongside Perlmutter, aims to affirm the efficacy of a particular radiotracer to target inflammatory cells in the brains of model organisms. After years of teamwork focused on exploring and detailing radiotracers in animal neuroinflammation, the team has pinpointed a promising radiotracer which has obtained FDA authorization for transition into clinical trials for human application. They are currently engaged in further exploration using preserved patient brain tissue samples, in addition to studying Parkinson’s patients in clinical settings, with the overarching aim of discovering new therapeutic targets for the condition.

Discover more on the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology website.

The article Grant supports PET scans to track inflammation in Parkinson’s disease was originally published on The Source.