Animal Models of Alzheimer’s Disease Evaluated with [11C]Pittsburg Compound B

Several animal models of Alzheimer's disease have been developed and tested for diagnostic and treatment purposes. [¹¹C]PIB is the gold-standard radiotracer for the detection of Aβ plaque deposits, a hallmark of the disease. This study aimed to evaluate the in vivo detection of Aβ plaques using [¹¹C]PIB microPET imaging across different animal models of Alzheimer's disease. The study included 3xTg-AD transgenic mice, TgF344-AD transgenic rats and Aβ injection-based rat model. The results showed an age-related increase in [¹¹C]PIB uptake in 3xTg-AD mice, particularly in the midbrain and thalamus. In TgF344-AD rats, differences were also observed compared to WT controls, with the highest values observed in the hippocampus and cortex. In the injection-based model, inoculated rats showed greater uptake in the injection site than SHAM animals. Across all microPET studies, [¹¹C]PIB uptake was consistently higher in females than in their male counterparts. These findings support the value of transgenic and Aβ injection-based models in preclinical research on Aβ plaque deposition and highlight the importance of considering species, model type, sex, and age in experimental design.