Tau imaging

Yukitsuka Kudo¹⁾, Nobuyuki Okamura²⁾, Shozo Furumoto²⁾, Katsutoshi Furukawa³⁾,
Kazuhiko Yanai²⁾, Hiroyuki Arai³⁾

¹⁾Innovation of New Biomedical Engineering Center, Tohoku University,
²⁾Department of Pharmacology, Tohoku University School of Medicine,
³⁾Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University

Neurofibrillary tangles predominantly comprise hyperphosphorylated tau protein (tau) and represent a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. Tau imaging so far has been thought possible to diagnose the severity of dementia, but recently also believed to allow an accurate extraction of presymptomatic high-risk subjects. We discuss the current status of tau imaging probe and its clinical usefulness.

Address correspondence to Dr.Yukitsuka Kudo, Innovation of New Biomedical Engineering Center, Tohoku University (1-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8574, Japan)