PET in neurotherapeutic discovery and development. (PubMed, Neurotherapeutics)
In this perspective we discuss the use of PET radioligands in central nervous system (CNS) drug discovery and development, with a focus on recent applications in psychiatry (e.g. 5-HT2A, 11β-HSD1), neuro-oncology (e.g. KRASG12C, ATM, ALK2), and neurodegeneration (e.g. amyloid beta plaques, MAPK p38), while exploring the intricacies associated with developing novel radiotracers for CNS targets. Examples highlight the preclinical and clinical uses of PET for studying biomarker function, drug candidate PK/PD, target occupancy/engagement, dosing regimen determination, clinical trial patient selection, and quantifying biomarker changes in response to treatments.