PET-assessed in vivo synaptic loss linked to frontotemporal dementia

Takeaway

  • Severe and extensive synaptic loss in the frontotemporal cortex is associated with the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), reflecting its clinical severity.

Why this matters

  • Postmortem studies and animal models have shown that early and significant synaptic loss was a feature of FTD. The availability of new imaging tools now enables in vivo assessment of synaptic density.

  • This knowledge will inform the design of future clinical trials for disease-modifying therapy in neurodegeneration. Synaptic density, as measured by [11 C]UCB-J PET, can be a metric for patient stratification and outcome assessment.