PET Imaging of Serotonin Type 2A Receptors in Late-Life Neuropsychiatric Disorders

• Published in: The American journal of psychiatry Vol. 156; no. 12; pp. 1871 - 1878
• Main Authors: Meltzer, Carolyn Cidis, Price, Julie C., Mathis, Chester A., Greer, Phil J., Cantwell, Michael N., Houck, Patricia R., Mulsant, Benoit H., Ben-Eliezer, Doron, Lopresti, Brian, DeKosky, Steven T., Reynolds, Charles F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychiatric Publishing 01-12-1999; American Psychiatric Association
• Subjects: Age Factors; Aged; Alzheimer Disease - diagnosis; Alzheimer Disease - diagnostic imaging; Alzheimer Disease - metabolism; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - metabolism; Cerebral Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Cerebral Cortex - metabolism; Depressive Disorder - diagnosis; Depressive Disorder - diagnostic imaging; Depressive Disorder - metabolism; Female; Fluorine Radioisotopes; Geriatrics; Gyrus Cinguli - diagnostic imaging; Gyrus Cinguli - metabolism; Humans; Ketanserin - analogs & derivatives; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical sciences; Mental disorders; Prefrontal Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Prefrontal Cortex - metabolism; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2A; Receptors, Serotonin - metabolism; Tomography; Tomography, Emission-Computed; Radionuclide study; Human; Mood disorder; Nervous system diseases; Pathophysiology; Alzheimer disease; Central nervous system; Depression; 5-HT2 Serotonine receptor; Cerebral disorder; Biological fixation; Central nervous system disease; Degenerative disease; Elderly; Neurotransmission; Brain (vertebrata); Positron; Emission tomography
• ISSN: 0002-953X; 1535-7228
• DOI: 10.1176/ajp.156.12.1871

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether there are abnormalities in the in vivo status of the serotonin type 2A (5-HT2A) receptor in late-life depression and Alzheimer's disease, the authors used positron emission tomography (PET) to assess patients with these two conditions and healthy subjects. METHOD: PET was performed by using [18F]altanserin to evaluate 5-HT2A receptor binding in 11 elderly patients with depression (four men, seven women; mean age=65.0 years, SD=5.5); nine Alzheimer's disease patients, including three with concurrent depression (two men, seven women; mean age=69.7 years, SD=5.0); and 10 age-matched healthy subjects (four men, six women; mean age=69.8 years, SD=5.0). Partial-volume correction of regional specific binding estimates was performed by using a method based on magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS: No significant abnormalities in [18F]altanserin binding (binding potential) were observed in the patients with late-life depression, and no effect of depression on binding potential was present within the Alz­heimer's disease group. However, the patients with Alzheimer's disease had significantly lower binding than the normal subjects in several brain regions, including the anterior cingulate, prefrontal cortex, and sensorimotor cortex. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the 5-HT2A receptor is differentially affected in late-life depression and Alzheimer's disease, a finding that has implications for the etiological basis of mood and cognitive features of neuropsychiatric disorders of late life.