Impact of beta‐amyloid oligomers on in vivo brain glucose metabolism

Background The deposition of β‐amyloid (Aβ) plaques is a classical neuropathological feature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Currently, it is believed that intermediate products of the Aβ fibrillogenesis process, like the β‐amyloid oligomers (AβOs), are the most toxic forms, and are involved in neurodegenerative processes in AD. The evaluation of cerebral glucose metabolism in patients with β‐amyloid plaque deposition using [18F]FDG‐PET has been used as a marker of neurodegeneration in AD. However, little is understood about AβOs' impact on glucose metabolism prior to Aβ plaques formation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the intracerebroventricular infusion of AβOs on in vivo glucose metabolism via [18F]FDG‐PET. Method Male Swiss mice (3‐month‐old, n = 20 per group) were divided into three groups: Vehicle, AβOs 10pmol, and AβOs 100pmol. Vehicle/AβOs were infused into mice’ right ventricle using the freehand technique after brief isoflurane anesthesia. [18F]FDG‐PET scans were performed 24h after AβOs infusion. The same animals underwent the Novel Object Recognition (NOR) task 24h after scanning. The images were processed and analyzed using MINC tools. Metabolic networks were built by computing Pearson correlation coefficients based on 2,000 bootstrap samples and FDR corrected (P