Experimental gerontology
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Experimental gerontology · Jul 2018
Comparative StudyA cross-sectional comparison of brain glucose and ketone metabolism in cognitively healthy older adults, mild cognitive impairment and early Alzheimer's disease.
Deteriorating brain glucose metabolism precedes the clinical onset of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and appears to contribute to its etiology. Ketone bodies, mainly β-hydroxybutyrate and acetoacetate, are the primary alternative brain fuel to glucose. Some reports suggest that brain ketone metabolism is unchanged in AD but, to our knowledge, no such data are available for MCI. ⋯ This quantitative kinetic PET and MRI imaging protocol for brain glucose and acetoacetate metabolism confirms that the brain undergoes structural atrophy and lower brain energy metabolism in MCI and AD and demonstrates that the deterioration in brain energy metabolism is specific to glucose. These results suggest that a ketogenic intervention to increase energy availability for the brain is warranted in an attempt to delay further cognitive decline by compensating for the brain glucose deficit in MCI and AD.