PET/SPECT Molecular Probes for the Diagnosis and Staging of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Tuo Shao, Massachusetts General Hospital; Lee Josephson, Massachusetts General Hospital; Steven Huan Liang, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2019-01-01
• Publisher: SAGE
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © The Author(s) 2019
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1536012119871455
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Molecular Imaging
• Volume: 18
• Start Page: 1536012119871455
• End Page: 1536012119871455
• Grant/Funding Information: The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
• Keywords: biomarker; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease; Biomarkers; Molecular Probes; Positron-Emission Tomography; hematology; Hematology; Humans; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
• Research Categories: Chemistry, Biochemistry; Chemistry, Radiation

Abstract

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a significant public health challenge afflicting approximately 1 billion individuals both in the Western world and in the East world. While liver biopsy is considered as gold standard in the diagnosis and staging of liver fibrosis, noninvasive imaging technologies, including ultrasonography, computed tomography, single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), magnetic resonance imaging, and positron emission tomography (PET) could offer more sensitive, comprehensive, and quantitative measurement for NAFLD. In this review, we focus on recent development and applications of PET/SPECT molecular probes that enable multispatial/temporal visualization and quantification of physiopathological progress at the molecular level in the NAFLD. We shall also discuss the limitations of current radioligands and future direction for PET/SPECT probe development.