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WASHINGTON (AP) - A dye-like compound that moves into the brain and pinpoints areas affected by Alzheimer's disease has been demonstrated in laboratory animal experiments, researchers say.

In a study appearing Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine say they have made a molecule called BSB that in mice will link specifically with brain tissue affected by Alzheimer's disease.

When injected in the bloodstream, the molecule travels to the brain and attaches itself to the diseased tissue. Researchers say the molecules is visible on medical imaging equipment. If the technique can be developed for human use, it would enable clinicians, for the first time, to see the extent of brain tissue affected by Alzheimer's disease.

The molecule probe also would enable doctors to monitor the effects of any new drugs developed to treat Alzheimer's.

Alzheimer's disease involves the formation in the brain of a waxy substance called amyloid plaques. These plaques are thought to play role in the killing of neurons, the disease process in Alzheimer's.

The plaques, however, cannot be seen well on X-ray and other imaging equipment. This is one reason that Alzheimer's cannot be positively diagnosed except by autopsy.

The BSB molecule, if it can be made to work in humans, could change that. The molecule is small enough to slip through the blood brain barrier, a natural filter that protects the brain, and has been shown in the mouse studies to find and attach to the amyloid plaques.

A radioactive marker attached to the molecule will make it possible to visualize plaque formation on clinical imaging equipment, said Dr. Virginia Lee, a university researcher and co-author of the study.

"This research is an enormously important step toward developing an imaging method that could pinpoint telltale signs of plaque development associated with Alzheimer's disease in a living brain," said Marcelle Morrison-Bogorad of the National Institute of Aging, one of the agencies of the National Institutes of Health.