Imaging In Cns Drug Discovery And Development

Drug development today needs to balance agility, speed, and risk in defining probability of success for molecules, mechanisms, and therapeutic concepts. New techniques such as fMRI promise to be part of a sequence that could transform drug development. Although numerous review articles exist that discuss the use of imaging in drug development, no one source is available that combines the various techniques and includes a discussion of disease mapping. Imaging in CNS Drug Discovery and Development, Implications for Disease and Therapy will serve to distill the most salient developments in the use of imaging in drug development and disease mapping. It will launch evolving concepts that integrate new imaging technologies and paradigms with molecular medicine and molecular profiling ("monics") as well as consider the ethical issues that arise as a result of disease or state diagnosis and the use of imaging in the public eye.

This book covers methodical issues in human and animal neuroimaging translational research as well as detailed applied examples of the use of neuroimaging in neuropsychiatric disorders and the development of drugs for their treatment. Offering an accompanying website with illustrations and text available for further knowledge and presentations, Translational Neuroimaging: Tools for CNS Drug Discovery, Development and Treatment appeals to non-clinical and clinical neuroscientists working in and studying neuropsychiatric disorders and their treatment as well as providing the novice researcher or researcher outside of his/her expertise the opportunity to understand the background of translational research and the use of imaging in this field. Provides a background to translational research and the use of brain imaging in neuropsychiatric disorders.

This textbook provides a comprehensive overview of the currently used concepts, approaches and technologies in the discovery and development of new treatments for the full spectrum of disorders of the central nervous system. It guides the reader through all essential steps, from finding an innovative idea, to the registration of a new drug. Divided into four sections, the book starts by presenting a broad perspective on current approaches in central nervous system (CNS) drug discovery. The second section addresses the generation of ideas for the identification of targets and novel treatment strategies; covers core functions in early discovery, and provides an example of a novel treatment paradigm: brain stimulation. The third section highlights strategies and technologies in translational CNS drug discovery. In an effort to bridge the gap between discovery and clinical development, it also covers brain imaging, EEG and cognitive testing approaches. The fourth section extensively discusses the clinical phase of drug development, covering the basics of early clinical testing for psychopharmacological drugs. The book’s final chapter addresses the registration for newly developed drugs. Written by experts from academia and industry, the book covers important basics and best practices, as well as recent developments in drug discovery. Offering in-depth insights into the world of drug development, it represents essential reading for early researchers who want to prepare for a career in drug discovery in academia or industry.

This monograph examines the contribution of imaging modalities to the stages of drug discovery and development, from early target validation to their use in clinical development programs. Chapters are devoted to the description of the drug discovery process, to the various imaging modalities preclinically and clinically, to applications of imaging during the optimization of a lead compound, addressing issues such as bioavailability and efficacy, and during drug safety evaluation.

It is the purpose and business of the pharmaceutical industry to dis cover, develop, and make available drugs for the care of the sick. The purpose of universities and national laboratories is to provide people and scientific knowledge that can help in the process. This book presents the combined efforts of scientists from the drug in dustry, academic laboratories and national laboratories to describe advances in radiotracer technology in studies on experimental ani mals and living human beings. The authors believe that the technol ogy is now ready for widespread application in the pharmaceutical industry. The goal of this book is to help bring this about. The field of Nuclear Medicine is based on the concept that, if treatment of disease is chemical, the patient's diagnosis should be chemical. Anatomy and histopathology have been the principle ba sis for making a diagnosis. Histopathologic data suffer from being descriptive, subjective, not quantifiable, and based on the study of dead tissue. The era of histopathology as the dominant concept in medical practice is coming to an end. Histopathologic findings are often heterogeneous and a single biopsy will at times not reveal the true nature of the disease, such as the grading of malignancy. Far greater accuracy of staging of disease and in the planning of treat ment is possible through chemistry, as well as by making possible a more suitable selection of a histological biopsy site.

Drug development is very expensive and a fight against time. PET offers possibilities to speed up this process by adding unique in vivo information on pharmacokinetics/dynamics of a drug at an early stage. This information can help decision makers to move the drug in the drug development process or to decide to stop further developments. This unique and complete book highlights the different ways PET can be used and describes the latest trends in the various disciplines within nuclear medicine to further improve methodologies and increase the number of tools to accelerate drug development. Various topics within tracer development, instrumentation, data analysis and many clinical and preclinical topics are described by leading scientists from industry and academia.

The focus of this new book is for medicinal chemists on the chemical agents that have been used, or might be required in the future, and the methods of synthesis for inserting the reporter groups. Medicinal chemists need to know the critical issues involved in using such chemical agents with regard to the biological applications - for instance - what properties are needed chemically and why? The topics covered in the book are: PET, SPECT, contrast agents, radioimaging/radionuclide conjugates, receptor mapping, small animal imaging (eg. WBAR - whole body autoradiography); photoinduced labelling, as well as chapters on the physical techniques used including: NMR, mass spectrometry and Xray. A key reference for academics, postgraduates, researchers, industrialists and professionals working in or joining this field.