There was an important imaging conference in January 2016 in Florida, where tau imaging research was discussed. Tau is the protein involved in PSP, CBD, Alzheimer’s, and a few other disorders. The goal is to be able to use a PET scan with a chemical that binds to tau to help diagnose these disorders. Unfortunately the news at the conference was not very positive when it comes to PSP and CBS/CBD. As noted in the August 2015 email below, three chemicals are being investigated. The news at the January conference is that one of these chemicals “falls short of distinguishing people with disease from normal healthy controls. … Researchers noted that while [the chemical] AV1451 seems to bind where one might expect in a given case of tauopathy, it falls short when it comes to being diagnostically useful.”
Quite a bit of this research with that particular chemical is happening at UCSF. Keep reading if you want more details.
Robin