Small organic probes as amyloid specific ligands--past and recent molecular scaffolds.

Molecular probes for selective staining and imaging of protein aggregates, such as amyloid, are important to advance our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying protein misfolding diseases and also for obtaining an early and accurate clinical diagnosis of these disorders. Since normal immunohistochemical reagents, such as antibodies have shown limitation for identifying protein aggregates both in vitro and in vivo, small organic probes have been utilized as amyloid specific markers. In this review, past and recent molecular scaffolds that have been utilized for the development of small organic amyloid imaging agents are discussed.