TMT is a highly toxic chemical that can be used as an organic synthesis reagent for the preparation of other organotin compounds. Since TMT is widely used as a heat stabilizer for plastics due to its good effect and high transparency, it is not only easy to expose TMT in the production process, but also easy to cause TMT to migrate into water and food during the circulation and use of plastic products, posing a threat to public health23. Although a growing body of evidence has pointed out the harmful effects of TMT, the mechanism of neurotoxicity caused by TMT is still in the exploratory stage, and there is a lack of sensitive imaging detection methods for early TMT poisoning. In this study, we used Micro-PET/CT to quantify and locate the brain energy metabolism of TMT exposed rats, and found that PET/CT of TMT exposed rats had abnormalities in the early stage, and the abnormal brain functional areas were highly consistent with the symptoms of TMT neurotoxicity. PET/CT can be used as a sensitive method to detect TMT poisoning, and the decrease of brain glucose metabolism is the key cause of TMT induced central nervous system damage.
The reported cases of TMT poisoning present with initial nonspecific symptoms such as dizziness, headache, and fatigue. Subsequently, some cases exhibit additional manifestations of toxic encephalopathy including memory loss, altered consciousness, epilepsy, aggressive behavior, mania, and other neuropsychiatric symptoms24,25. In a few instances, hallucinations and hearing abnormalities have also been observed26,27. In this study, rats exposed to TMT displayed spasms, aggressive behavior, irritability, slight head tremor; while severe symptoms such as convulsions, limb weakness, rigidity, and epistaxis were also noted. Furthermore, the behavioral experiments revealed that TMT induced impairments in long-term and short-term memory, muscle strength, motor coordination ability, and emotional responses in rats. The findings align with the outcomes of prior investigations.
MRI serves as a valuable tool for diagnosing various forms of toxic encephalopathy and effectively assessing the patient's condition. However, in clinical studies on TMT poisoning, it has been observed that the MRI examination yields a relatively low positive rate, with an overall abnormality rate of approximately 13%, and lacks specificity in lesion identification. Electroencephalogram plays a supplementary role in the clinical diagnosis and prognosis assessment of different types of toxic encephalopathy; however, previous reports indicate an abnormality rate of only about 50%11,12. Researchers have followed up 6 patients with TMT poisoning after 2 years, and found that the initial MRI of these patients was not significantly abnormal, but the head MRI results 2 years later showed significant atrophy of bilateral temporal lobe, hippocampus, insular lobe, cerebellum and ventricular enlargement28,29. This suggests that there may be non-organic brain damage in TMT patients before it progresses to substantial damage.
Some scholars posit that TMT acts as a potent metabolic inhibitor, suppressing mitochondrial ATP synthesis and impeding the phosphorylation cascade involved in oxidative phosphorylation. Consequently, these neuropsychiatric symptoms arise from aberrant alterations in biological metabolism due to disruptions in neuronal ATP synthesis30,31. Glucose serves as an indispensable energy source for the adult brain, with its catabolism and anabolism intricately linked to energy production, neurotransmission, management of oxidative stress, and cellular component growth and repair32,33. 18F-FDG PET/CT can analyze brain glucose metabolism and provide anatomical location, which is an effective method to evaluate brain metabolism34,35. Therefore, 18F-FDG Micro-PET/CT analysis of TMT exposed rats showed that glucose uptake in a wide range of regions of the brain was decreased after TMT exposure.
The hippocampus is widely recognized for its close association with memory function. Previous studies have predominantly focused on the hippocampus due to its sensitivity to TMT36-38, as shown by Micro-PET/CT results, the glucose uptake value of the hippocampus is significantly reduced. Additionally, other memory-related areas such as the entorhinal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, retrosplenial cortex, and somatosensory cortex also exhibited significantly reduced glucose uptake The insular cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, cingulate cortex, and frontal cortex are extensively interconnected and play vital roles in emotion generation, processing, regulation as well as various activities including addiction, aggression, fear response modulation, error monitoring problem-solving, and social cognition. The observed mental abnormalities in TMT-poisoned patients and TMT-exposed rats are likely associated with reduced glucose uptake within these regions. Numerous studies have highlighted the critical involvement of the dorsal hippocampus in acute epilepsy onset, suggesting a potential association between seizures and convulsions induced by TMT poisoning with this brain region.
Previous studies have demonstrated that exposure to TMT induces neurodegeneration39,40. Although the main function of olfactory nerve is to transmit odor, it has been reported that olfactory dysfunction is a prodromal symptom of Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, which can be explained by the decrease of glucose uptake value of olfactory nerve. The presence of hallucinations and tinnitus in poisoning cases is associated with abnormal energy metabolism in corresponding functional areas. Research indicates that the superior colliculus serves as a higher center for vision, while the visual cortex processes visual information; thus, reductions in signals within the visual cortex may give rise to visual hallucinations. The striatum, somatosensory cortex, and thalamus play crucial roles in perceiving and processing sensory information from the body, regulating movement, attention, and consciousness. Additionally, both the motor cortex and cerebellum are involved in planning, controlling, and executing voluntary movements, aligning well with the neuropsychiatric symptoms induced by TMT.
Pathological studies have been conducted on various brain regions of rats exposed to TMT, revealing extensive neurotoxicity in areas such as the olfactory region, hippocampus, amygdala, cortex, cerebellum, pons, inferior colliculus and superior colliculus, hypoglossal nucleus, and thalamus. These findings are consistent with our PET-CT conclusions41,42. In this study, it was also observed that neurons in the cerebral cortex, hippocampal CA1, CA3 and DG areas and cerebellum were damaged after TMT exposure, and increased glial cells could be observed around the hippocampus43,44. In addition, it was found that the brain coefficient of the exposed rats was significantly higher than that of the control group, but there was no obvious edema or congestion in the appearance of brain tissue and pathological section, which was considered to be caused by the weight loss of the exposed rats. It has been reported that the head CT of patients with TMT poisoning showed demyelinating degeneration of the white matter45. Therefore, we used LFB staining to observe the morphological structure and pathological changes of the nerve myelin sheath, but unfortunately no demyelinating injury was observed. In summary, although there are some slight changes in brain histopathological examination, the area and obvious degree of changes are far less extensive than those of PET-CT.
In conclusion, when there is no obvious organic damage in the early stage of TMT poisoning, PET/CT examination can detect early abnormal functional changes in brain tissue, which is highly consistent with the symptoms shown by clinical patients and exposed rats, and precede pathological and conventional imaging changes. This study is an exploration of the application of PET/CT in the diagnosis and evaluation of TMT, however, certain limitations should be acknowledged. Further research is warranted to elucidate the underlying mechanism responsible for reduced brain energy intake caused by TMT. Nevertheless, these results undeniably support the feasibility of utilizing PET/CT technology for detecting TMT poisoning, thereby suggesting its potential as a valuable tool for early diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and disease assessment of toxic encephalopathy induced by TMT.