Head-to-head comparison of tau positron emission tomography tracers [(18)F]flortaucipir and [(18)F]RO948

PURPOSE: [(18)F]flortaucipir binds to paired helical filament tau and accurately identifies tau in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, “off-target” binding interferes with the quantification of [(18)F]flortaucipir in several brain regions. Recently, other tau PET tracers have been developed. Here, we compare [(18)F]flortaucipir with the novel tau tracer [(18)F]RO948 head-to-head in vivo. METHODS: We included 18 participants with AD, three with amyloid-β-positive amnestic mild cognitive impairment, and four healthy controls. All underwent [(18)F]flortaucipir (80–100 min) and [(18)F]RO948 (70–90) PET scans within approximately 1 month. Four study participants underwent 0–100-min dynamic scanning. Standardized uptake value ratios (SUVRs) were created using an inferior cerebellar reference region. RESULTS: Neocortical tracer retention was highly comparable using both SUVR and distribution volume ratio-1 values obtained from dynamic scans. However, [(18)F]RO948 retention was significantly higher in the entorhinal cortex and lower in the basal ganglia, thalamus, and choroid plexus compared with [(18)F]flortaucipir. Increased off-target binding was observed with age for both tracers. Several cases exhibited strong [(18)F]RO948 retention in the skull/meninges. This extra-cerebral signal, however, did not affect diagnostic accuracy and remained relatively unchanged when re-examining a subsample after 1 year. Kinetic modeling showed an increase in [(18)F]flortaucipir SUVR over the scanning interval, compared with a plateau for [(18)F]RO948. CONCLUSION: [(18)F]RO948 and [(18)F]flortaucipir bound comparably in neocortical regions, but [(18)F]RO948 showed higher retention in the medial temporal lobe and lower intracerebral “off-target” binding. Time-dependent bias of SUVR estimates may prove less of a factor with [(18)F]RO948, compared with previous tau ligands. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00259-019-04496-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.