A Synthetic Overview of Radiolabeled Compounds for ß-Amyloid Targeting

The formation of beta-amyloid plaques is considered a histopathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disorder that affects millions of people worldwide. For effective treatment of AD, diagnosis at an earlier stage of the degenerative process is essential. Therefore, in the last few years significant efforts to find probes for in vitro and/or in vivo imaging of beta-amyloid deposits have been made. This work presents an overview of different small molecules explored as fluorescent or radioactive probes for targeting beta-amyloid deposits. It focuses mainly on the different synthetic approaches used for their synthesis or radiosynthesis but their biological behaviour is also briefly discussed when appropriate.