Fangyu Peng
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, USA
Title: Altered copper metabolism: A novel imaging biomarker in aging
Biography
Biography: Fangyu Peng
Abstract
Copper is a nutritional metal required for brain development and physiology. Disruption of copper homeostasis, either a copper deficiency or the accumulation of excess amount of copper in brain tissues, causes neurodegeneration and various symptoms of neurological disorders. Using copper-64 chloride (64CuCl2) as a tracer, age-dependent changes of 64Cu uptake in the brains of Tau transgenic mice and age-matched C57BL/6 mice were assessed noninvasively and quantitatively by a longitudinal Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (PET/CT) imaging study. Age-dependent changes of cerebral 64Cu uptake were detected in the mice, showing decreased 64Cu uptake in the brains of Tau transgenic mice at older age compared with 64Cu uptake in the brains of Tau transgenic mice at a younger age and age-matched C57BL/6 mice. The findings suggest that altered copper metabolism is a novel, promising imaging biomarker for noninvasive assessment of brain aging with PET/CT using 64CuCl2 as a tracer (64CuCl2- PET/CT).
