Table of Contents
Structural MRI has several key advantages for the measurement of brain atrophy in preclinical studies of disease-modifying therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases:
- Non-invasive, in vivo measures without confounds associated with tissue manipulation (e.g. extraction, fixation, processing)
- Opportunity for longitudinal measures in the same animal
- Often the first biomarker to show disease progression (before conventional fluid & tissue markers)
- Can obtain readouts from the in-life phase that can serve as go/no-go decision points for additional analyses
- Allows for evaluation of the brain regions that are specifically affected in a particular disease model
In vivo MRI brain atrophy measures can be complemented by NfL measures in the plasma and CSF (also a clinically-translational biomarker), as well as by appropriate, quantitative immunohistochemistry or immunofluorescence markers on post-mortem tissue sections. Through this "multi-modality" strategy, a high degree of sensitivity and specificity can be realized.