SynQuant: an automatic tool to quantify synapses from microscopy images

Yizhi Wang, Congchao Wang, Petter Ranefall, Gerard Broussard, Yinxue Wang, Guilai Shi, Boyu Lyu, Chiung-Ting Wu, Yue Wang, Lin Tian, Guoqiang Yu

Abstract: Synapses are essential to neural signal transmission. Therefore, quantification of synapses and related neurites from images is vital to gain insights into the underlying pathways of brain functionality and diseases. Despite the wide availability of synaptic punctum imaging data, several issues are impeding satisfactory quantification of these structures by current tools. First, the antibodies used for labeling synapses are not perfectly specific to synapses. These antibodies may exist in neurites or other cell compartments. Second, the brightness of different neurites and synaptic puncta is heterogeneous due to the variation of antibody concentration and synapse-intrinsic differences. Third, images often have low signal to noise ratio due to constraints of experiment facilities and availability of sensitive antibodies. These issues make the detection of synapses challenging and necessitates developing a new tool to easily and accurately quantify synapses.