Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative pathology showing cognitive and memory disorders which progress toward an incurable demential state. AD represents the principle cause of the dementia syndrome and it is estimated that AD is involved in 70% of dementia cases. AD prevalence is high in the over 60 years old population. This elevated prevalence is associated with an increasing number of elderly people. AD is therefore a major public health concern. AD is characterized by two types of specific cerebral lesions: neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) and amyloid plaques. However, there is no consensus on the links between these two types of lesions. To date, their presence can only be evaluated by a post-mortem examination. AD being a progressive pathology, this examination cannot be used to fully characterize the dynamic processes involved in AD. In this context, the development of non invasive imaging techniques to monitor the lesions progression in vivo could be determinant in AD pathophysiology understanding. Our objective is to develop new tracers of amyloid and neurofibrillary lesions for nuclear imaging. The first part of this study was dedicated to the validatation of an AD animal model: Transgenic 3xTgAD mice. The second part of this thesis focuses on the appreciatiation of the biological comportement of several known radiotracers of AD on this animal model. In the third part of this work, we initiate the development of several new tracers of AD-specific lesions. The para-sulfonato- calixarenes and the COB compounds for amyloid plaques detection and a peptide named A93, associated to a vector for the study of neurofibrillary tangles.
