2-(1-{6-[(2-[¹⁸F]Fluoroethyl)(methyl)amino]-2-naphthyl}ethylidene)malononitrile
[¹⁸F]FDDNP

Pubchem Listing 

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a form of dementia with gradual memory loss and a progressive decline in mental functions over time. It is characterized pathologically by neuronal loss, extracellular senile plaques (SPs; aggregates of amyloid-beta peptides consisting of 40 to 42 amino acids), and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (filaments of microtubule-binding, hyperphosphorylated protein tau) in the brain, especially in the hippocampus and associative regions of the cortex. Beta-amyloid peptides and tau protein are implicated as the main causes of neuronal degeneration and cell death.

Early diagnosis of AD is important for treatment consideration and disease management. Various amyloid imaging agents have been developed for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and positron emission tomography (PET) . The binding of different derivatives of Congo Red, thioflavin, stilbene, and aminonaphthalene has been studied in human postmortem brain tissue and in transgenic mice. Of these analogs, 2-(1-(6-[(2-[¹⁸F]fluoroethyl)(methyl)amino]-2-
naphthyl)ethylidene)malononitrile ([¹⁸F]FDDNP) was studied in humans, showing more binding in the brains of patients with AD than in those of healthy people. Despite of its slow clearance kinetics for PET imaging, [¹⁸F]FDDNP has been found to be a useful tool for detection of both neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) and amyloid-beta senile plaques (APs) in AD patients.