FORENAP does not have its own PET scan but works in collaboration with the PET centres of Freiburg and Tübingen (Germany) to offer the pharmaceutical industry the possibility to identify the brain areas where a drug acts. PET studies can be proposed through the different phases of the drug development. PET has largely been applied in the field of schizophrenia and its treatment.
Taken as a whole, the Positron Emission Tomography or PET uses radiotracers, specific compounds labelled with small amount of radioactivity. The radiotracer is then injected in the blood stream and the radioactivity is detected in different brain areas as the compound accumulates. Images construction identify the study compound targets. This technique can be used safely as radioactivity is rapidly eliminated from the body.
The PET technique is an interesting tool in phase I trials in order to see if a new drug reaches its expected brain target, and to evaluate the drug binding kinetics at its brain target as well as the relationships between receptor occupancy and doses administered. This kind of study allows to optimise the choice of the dosage in subsequent clinical phases in patients.
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