SHORT REPORT

Brain acetylcholinesterase activity in mild cognitive impairment and early Alzheimer’s disease

J O Rinne¹, V Kaasinen¹, T Järvenpää³, K Någren³, A Roivainen³, M Yu³, V Oikonen³ and T Kurki²

¹ Department of Neurology, University of Turku, Finland
² Department of Radiology, University of Turku
³ Turku PET Centre, Turku

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Juha O Rinne, Turku PET Centre, PO Box 52, FIN-20521, Turku, Finland;
juha.rinne{at}pet.tyks.fi

Objective: Brain acetylcholinesterase activity was determined in healthy controls and in patients with mild cognitive impairment and early Alzheimer’s disease.

Methods: A specific acetylcholinesterase tracer, [methyl-¹¹C]N-methyl-piperidyl-4-acetate ([¹¹C]MP4A), and a three dimensional PET system with magnetic resonance coregistration were used for imaging.

Results: There was a significant difference in the acetylcholinesterase activity in the hippocampus between the groups (p = 0.03), the mean (SD) acetylcholinesterase activity (k₃ values, min^-1) being 0.114 (0.036) in controls, 0.098 (0.023) in mild cognitive impairment, and 0.085 (0.022) in Alzheimer’s disease. The mini-mental state examination score showed no significant relation with acetylcholinesterase activity in any brain area in the combined mild cognitive impairment/Alzheimer group.

Conclusions: Hippocampal acetylcholinesterase activity is only slightly reduced in mild cognitive impairment and early Alzheimer’s disease and so the value of in vivo acetylcholinesterase measurements in detecting the early Alzheimer process is limited.

Keywords: acetylcholinesterase; Alzheimer’s disease; dementia; mild cognitive impairment

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Virta, J. R., Tolvanen, T., Nagren, K., Bruck, A., Roivainen, A., Rinne, J. O. (2008). 1-11C-Methyl-4-Piperidinyl-N-Butyrate Radiation Dosimetry in Humans by Dynamic Organ-Specific Evaluation. JNM 49: 347-353 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Chetelat, G., Desgranges, B., Landeau, B., Mezenge, F., Poline, J. B., de la Sayette, V., Viader, F., Eustache, F., Baron, J.-C. (2008). Direct voxel-based comparison between grey matter hypometabolism and atrophy in Alzheimer's disease. Brain 131: 60-71 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• HERHOLZ, K, CARTER, S F, JONES, M (2007). Positron emission tomography imaging in dementia. Br. J. Radiol. 80: S160-S167 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Bohnen, N. I., Kaufer, D. I., Ivanco, L. S., Lopresti, B., Koeppe, R. A., Davis, J. G., Mathis, C. A., Moore, R. Y., DeKosky, S. T. (2003). Cortical Cholinergic Function Is More Severely Affected in Parkinsonian Dementia Than in Alzheimer Disease: An In Vivo Positron Emission Tomographic Study. Arch Neurol 60: 1745-1748 [Abstract] [Full Text]