Nuclear imaging to support anti-inflammatory drug discovery and development
Wunder, A.; Thiele, A.; Koslowski, M.; Gantner, F.; Niessen, H.
Quarterly Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging: Official Publication of the Italian Association of Nuclear Medicine and the International Association of Radiopharmacology and Section of the Society Of. 2014
2014
ISSN/ISBN: 1824-4785 PMID: 24829127 Document Number: 672547
Nuclear medicine contributes important tools to support antiinflammatory drug discovery and development in many ways. The support provided is manifold: new molecular entities (NME, either small molecules or biologics) labeled with radioisotopes can be applied in animal models and humans to measure biodistribution, target engagement, and pharmacokinetics. In addition, nuclear imaging techniques can be used to select or enrich the patient populations in clinical trials, to assess disease activity, target status and distribution and to quantify response to therapeutic interventions. In the first part of this review we will outline how nuclear imaging techniques can be applied to support informed decision making in drug development. In the second part, we will briefly highlight the use of nuclear imaging of inflammation in drug development in selected diseases, specifically rheumatoid arthritis (RA), inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), atherosclerosis (ATS) and as an emerging topic cancer.