We had previously reported on Avid Radiopharmaceuticals developing a contrast agent florbetapir to be used with positron emission tomography (PET) imaging to detect Alzheimer’s. Now in a Phase III Image-to-Autopsy trial, florbetapir shows promise as a predictive biomarker for diagnosing and monitoring disease progression.
From the press release:
These data come from the first cohort of subjects in the trial and are the first ever Phase III results for an agent designed to image Alzheimer’s disease pathology. Today, Alzheimer’s disease can only be definitely diagnosed by microscopic detection of beta-amyloid at autopsy. The goal of Avid’s Phase III trial is to test the ability of florbetapir to image beta-amyloid in living patients.
The interim data showed that florbetapir PET imaging results in patients correlated with the levels of beta-amyloid pathology later found in their brains at autopsy. Dr. Adam Fleisher, Associate Director of Brain Imaging at Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, presented the analysis at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Toronto, ON.
The PET images not only correctly identified which subjects had beta-amyloid deposits, but also showed where in the brain the deposits had accumulated. The full trial data are expected to be available later this year.
Press release: POSITIVE INTERIM RESULTS FROM PHASE III TRIAL OF AMYLOID
IMAGING AGENT FLORBETAPIR F18… (.pdf)
Avid Radiopharmaceuticals’ AV-45 technology page….
More from WSJ: New Tools to Detect Alzheimer’s…
From our archives: In the Works: Contrast Agents for Alzheimer’s