TY - JOUR T1 - High Availability of the α7-Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor in Brains of Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Pilot Study Using <sup>18</sup>F-ASEM PET JF - Journal of Nuclear Medicine JO - J Nucl Med SP - 423 LP - 426 DO - 10.2967/jnumed.119.230979 VL - 61 IS - 3 AU - Jennifer M. Coughlin AU - Leah H. Rubin AU - Yong Du AU - Steven P. Rowe AU - Jeffrey L. Crawford AU - Hailey B. Rosenthal AU - Sarah M. Frey AU - Erica S. Marshall AU - Laura K. Shinehouse AU - Allen Chen AU - Caroline L. Speck AU - Yuchuan Wang AU - Wojciech G. Lesniak AU - Il Minn AU - Arnold Bakker AU - Vidyulata Kamath AU - Gwenn S. Smith AU - Marilyn S. Albert AU - Babak Behnam Azad AU - Robert F. Dannals AU - Andrew Horti AU - Dean F. Wong AU - Martin G. Pomper Y1 - 2020/03/01 UR - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/61/3/423.abstract N2 - 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. ER -