Influence of alcoholism and cholesterol on TSPO binding in brain: PET [¹¹C]PBR28 studies in humans and rodents.

ABSTRACT: Neuroinflammation appears to contribute to neurotoxicity observed with heavy alcohol consumption. To assess whether chronic alcohol results in neuroinflammation we used PET and [¹¹C]PBR28, a ligand that binds to the 18-kDa translocator protein (TSPO), to compare participants with an alcohol use disorder (AUD: n = 19) with healthy controls (HC: n = 17), and alcohol-dependent (n = 9) with -nondependent rats (n = 10). Because TSPO is implicated in cholesterol's transport for steroidogenesis, we investigated whether plasma cholesterol levels influenced [¹¹C]PBR28 binding. [¹¹C]PBR28 binding did not differ between AUD and HC. However, when separating by TSPO genotype rs6971, we showed that medium-affinity binders AUD participants showed lower [¹¹C]PBR

SUBMITTER: Kim SW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6046047 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature