from Section II - Mood Disorders
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2011
Introduction
The initial publications of monoamine receptor binding in the living human brain in the mid 1980s and the progress in neurochemical brain imaging since that time have had a profound influence on our ability to test hypotheses generated from clinical observations, preclinical and post-mortem data regarding the neurochemistry of neuropsychiatric disorders in the living human brain (Wagner et al.,1983; Wong et al., 1984; Arnett et al., 1986). Progress in radiotracer chemistry and instrumentation over the past 20 years has enabled us to test mechanistic hypotheses about pathophysiology, as well as to understand the mechanism of action of psychotropic medications.
The primary focus of radiochemistry development for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) has been dopamine and serotonin neurotransmission (including imaging of neurotransmitter metabolism/synthesis, transporters and receptors). Major advances have been made in areas including cholinergic (muscarinic and nicotinic), glutamatergic (Brown et al., 2008), and opiate systems (Hashimoto et al., 2008; Hirvonen et al., 2009; Reid et al., 2008; Sorger et al., 2008). More recently, the focus of radiotracer development has broadened to include molecular targets such as signal transduction, inflammation and aspects of neuropathology such as amyloid deposition (Vasdev et al., 2008; Fujita et al., 2008; Suhara et al., 2008). Other more challenging targets of interest for which radiotracers continue to be in development include receptors and transporters for norepinephrine, corticotrophin-releasing factor and the hypothalamo-pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis and neurogenesis (Schou et al., 2007; Steiniger et al., 2008; Sullivan et al., 2007).
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