In vivo MRI detection of ß-amyloid pathologies at early and late stages of Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

Early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is crucial. However, there is a lack of effective diagnostic tools to detect AD at the early stage. Early stage β-amyloid (Aβ) oligomers (AβOs) and late stage Aβ plaques are the pathological hallmarks of AD brains. Recently, we have synthesized a novel curcumin-conjugated magnetic nanoparticle (Cur-MNP) to target Aβ pathologies, visualized in MRI. In this study, we investigated the in vivo feasibility of Cur-MNPs to detect the Aβ pathologies at early and late stages of AD progression, and performed immunohistology to validate the specific targeting of Aβ pathologies.