Psychedelic compounds such as 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) have attracted increasing interest in recent years because of their therapeutic potential in psychiatric disorders. To understand the acute effects of psychedelic drugs in vivo, blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI) has been widely used. In particular, fMRI studies have suggested that MDMA leads to...
Microdosing as a regulatory concept was introduced to facilitate exploratory studies in humans. The concept involves the use of very low doses of a radionuclide-labeled compound for imaging studies or for assessing plasma pharmacokinetics using equipment that has a highly sensitive readout. The supporting principle is that use of these low doses for a limited time in well-controlled, small...
UNLABELLED: PET brain imaging of the serotonin 2A (5-hydroxytryptamine 2A, or 5-HT(2A)) receptor has been widely used in clinical studies, and currently, several well-validated radiolabeled antagonist tracers are used for in vivo imaging of the cerebral 5-HT(2A) receptor. Access to 5-HT(2A) receptor agonist PET tracers would, however, enable imaging of the active, high-affinity state of...