2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Assessment of the treatment response to geriatric depression using tau protein PET imaging

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	20K07981
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Review Section	Basic Section 52030:Psychiatry-related
Research Institution	Nippon Medical School
Principal Investigator	Arakawa Ryosuke 日本医科大学, 大学院医学研究科, 大学院教授 (40350095)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	大久保善朗日本医科大学, 大学院医学研究科, 大学院教授 (20213663) 舘野周日本医科大学, 大学院医学研究科, 大学院教授 (50297917) 野上毅日本医科大学, 医学部, 講師 (30701940) 坂寄健日本医科大学, 医学部, 講師 (20569777)
Project Period (FY)	2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
Keywords	老年期うつ病 / タウ蛋白 / PET
Outline of Final Research Achievements	In the treatment of geriatric depression, poor response of the conventional pharmacotherapy is often observed. Depressive state as a prodromal symptom of organic brain disorder such as Alzheimer's disease, or its comorbidity is considered as the reason. In this study, PET measurement using [18F]PM-PBB3 was performed on 18 patients with depression aged 65 years or older to evaluate tau protein accumulation in the cerebral cortex. In many cases, tau protein accumulation was not observed, but some patients showed moderate accumulation. In addition, tau protein accumulation was slightly associated with cognitive decline on the time of PET measurement. These results suggested that there is a variability in tau protein accumulation in the brain among geriatric depression, and that the accumulation may affect cognitive function.
Free Research Field	精神医学・臨床薬理学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	これまで、老年期うつ病とアミロイドβとの関連はPETにおいて数多く検討されているが、老年期うつ病と脳内タウ蛋白との関連を検討したPET研究は数少ない。また、従来のタウ蛋白測定用のPETリガンドの問題点を改良した[18F]PM-PBB3を用いたうつ病の病態研究は報告されていない。老年期うつ病治療においては、通常の薬物療法に反応が乏しいことがしばしば見受けられるが、本研究で示したように老年期うつ病の病態と脳内タウ蛋白との関連を明らかにすることにより、治療開始時期や治療の選択、薬物の適正使用などの点で新たな治療戦略につながると考える。