News Releases & Research Results Visualization of abnormal protein deposits resulting in delayed brain dysfunction following head trauma —promotion of early diagnosis establishment or new medicine development through visualization of tau protein lesions in the brain—

News Releases & Research Results

Outline

Results of joint research led by Keisuke Takahata, Researcher, Department of Functional Brain Imaging Research, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST), Masaru Mimura, Professor, Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, and others.

Key points of research results

  • With the positron emission tomography technology (developed in QST), cerebral tau protein deposits resulting in delayed traumatic brain dysfunction (progressive brain dysfunction occurring a long time after head trauma) were successfully detected in vivo in patients with traumatic brain injury.
    Association of the amount of tau protein accumulation with symptoms of delayed traumatic brain dysfunction was first revealed.
  • In vivo visualization technology of tau is expected to be applied to development of early diagnosis and treatment for delayed traumatic brain dysfunction.

This research was supported by Brain Mapping Project of Integrated Neurotechnologies for Disease Studies by AMED.

The research and development results were published on September 2 in the online version of the British journal “Brain”.

Article

09/02/19

Last updated 09/02/19