Overview
- The eLife study published Aug 11–12, 2026 applied the Soma and Neurite Density Imaging (SANDI) model to diffusion MRI from 56 people with Huntington’s disease and 57 matched healthy volunteers scanned on the same CUBRIC MRI system.
- SANDI estimated lower cell body (soma) density, larger estimated soma size, and increased extracellular space in the striatum of people with Huntington’s disease, while the thalamus showed no detectable microstructural change.
- When combined with participant age, SANDI-derived measures accounted for up to 63% of measured striatal shrinkage and were linked to poorer performance on motor tasks such as finger tapping.
- Unlike standard volumetric MRI that measures gross tissue loss, SANDI maps how water diffuses inside cells to give measures of soma and neurite properties and so can reveal cellular changes that may precede visible atrophy.
- Authors and eLife stress that the results are promising but require larger, longitudinal validation and implementation across routine MRI platforms before use in clinical trials or care, and they say the method could also be tested in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease studies.