%0 Journal Article %A Jennifer M. Coughlin %A Leah H. Rubin %A Yong Du %A Steven P. Rowe %A Jeffrey L. Crawford %A Hailey B. Rosenthal %A Sarah M. Frey %A Erica S. Marshall %A Laura K. Shinehouse %A Allen Chen %A Caroline L. Speck %A Yuchuan Wang %A Wojciech G. Lesniak %A Il Minn %A Arnold Bakker %A Vidyulata Kamath %A Gwenn S. Smith %A Marilyn S. Albert %A Babak Behnam Azad %A Robert F. Dannals %A Andrew Horti %A Dean F. Wong %A Martin G. Pomper %T High Availability of the α7-Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor in Brains of Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Pilot Study Using 18F-ASEM PET %D 2020 %R 10.2967/jnumed.119.230979 %J Journal of Nuclear Medicine %P 423-426 %V 61 %N 3 %X Emerging evidence supports a hypothesized role for the α7-nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7-nAChR) in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease. 18F-ASEM (3-(1,4-diazabicyclo[3.2.2]nonan-4-yl)-6-18F-fluorodibenzo[b,d]thiophene 5,5-dioxide) is a radioligand for estimating the availability of α7-nAChR in the brain in vivo with PET. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 14 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a prodromal stage to dementia, and 17 cognitively intact, elderly controls completed 18F-ASEM PET. For each participant, binding in each region of interest was estimated using Logan graphical analysis with a metabolite-corrected arterial input function. Results: Higher 18F-ASEM binding was observed in MCI patients than in controls across all regions, supporting higher availability of α7-nAChR in MCI. 18F-ASEM binding was not associated with verbal memory in this small MCI sample. Conclusion: These data support use of 18F-ASEM PET to examine further the relationship between α7-nAChR availability and MCI. %U https://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/jnumed/61/3/423.full.pdf