Partner 9: University of Turku / Turku PET Centre (TPC)

Scientist responsible: Prof. Juha Rinne

Turku PET Centre is a Finnish National Research Institute for the use of short-lived positron emitting isotopes in the field of medical research. The Centre was established in 1970s and it got National status in 1996. The core functions of Turku PET Centre are based on the agreement between University of Turku, Åbo Akademi University and Turku University Hospital. The Centre consists of Accelerator Laboratory, Radiopharmaceutical chemistry laboratory, Preclinical imaging laboratory and PET imaging laboratory.

Neuroresearch (Juha Rinne)

The purpose of the clinical neurological project at TPC is to study normal ageing, cognitive brain functions and the etiology and pathophysiology and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. In normal human brain the effect of ageing on neurotransmitter systems and especially the role of brain dopaminergic system in memory and language functions in investigated. Of the neurodegenerative diseases main focus is on Parkinson´s disease and Alzheimer´s disease.

Radiopharmaceutical chemistry (Olof Solin)

Radiochemistry with short-lived PET-radionuclides has a history at Turku extending to middle 1970, at the MGC 20 cyclotron installed in 1974. Various ¹¹C-, ¹³N-, ¹⁵O- and ¹⁸F-labelled tracers have been synthesised for both scientific as well as clinical applications. Since early 1980 work has concentrated mostly on ¹¹C-, ¹⁸F and ¹⁵O-tracers. During the course of this research the central issues have been the development of automation for both radionuclide production as well as for radiotracer synthesis and preclinical evaluation of developed radiotracers.

Preclinical imaging laboratory (Merja Haaparanta-Solin)

For preclinical evaluation the ¹¹C-and ¹⁸F-labelled tracers are studied in various in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro biological models, in order to determine their suitability as PET tracers. This work is carried out as soon as the tracer is available from radiochemistry. Our program on the development of biological probes is focused on the design, synthesis and validation of positron-emitting tracers for pancreatic and Alzheimer’s disease PET imaging. General aims of the group are the development of specific in vivo probes for β-amyloid plaques for early detection of Alzheimer's disease and the design of PET/pre-clinical methods in the development of in vivo non-invasive procedures to quantitate pharmacokinetics in animals.

Recent relevant publications

Nordberg A, Rinne JO, Kadir A, Långström B.

The use of PET in Alzheimer disease.

Nat Rev Neurol. 2010 Feb;6(2):78-87.

Virta JJ, Aalto S, Järvenpää T, Karrasch M, Kaprio J, Koskenvuo M, Räihä I, Viljanen T, Rinne JO.
Voxel-based analysis of cerebral glucose metabolism in mono- and dizygotic twins discordant for Alzheimer disease.

J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2009;80(3):259-66.

N Kemppainen, S Aalto, I Wilson, K Någren, S Helin, A Brück, V Oikonen, M Kailajärvi, M Scheinin, M Viitanen, R Parkkola, JO Rinne.

Voxel Based Analysis of Amyloid Ligand [¹¹C]PIB Uptake in Alzheimer’s Disease.

Neurology 2006, 67: 1575 - 1580.

S Aalto, A Bruck, M Laine, K Någren, JO Rinne.

Frontal and temporal dopamine release during working memory and attention tasks in healthy humans – a positron emission tomography study using high affinity dopamine D2 receptor ligand [¹¹C]FLB 457.

Journal of Neuroscience, 2005;25:2471-2477.