Researchers at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, and the Italian Institute of Technology have developed a fiber-optic technique to detect amyloid plaques in the brains of freely moving mice. The new technique, published in Neurophotonics , uses the fluorescent dye Methoxy-X04, which binds specifically to amyloid fibrils and can cross the blood-brain barrier, allows researchers to track the presence and distribution of plaques in the brains of mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease .

The team’s findings demonstrated that fiber photometry, which today is typically used to measure neural activity, can be adapted to detect molecular pathology in Alzheimer’s mouse models. Their approach could potentially eliminate the need for genetically encoded sensors and would allow for longitudi

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