Cerebral serotonin release correlates with [¹¹C]AZ10419369 PET measures of 5-HT_1B receptor binding in the pig brain

TY - JOUR

T1 - Cerebral serotonin release correlates with [11C]AZ10419369 PET measures of 5-HT1B receptor binding in the pig brain

AU - Jørgensen, Louise M

AU - Weikop, Pia

AU - Svarer, Claus

AU - Feng, Ling

AU - Keller, Sune H

AU - Knudsen, Gitte M

PY - 2018/7/1

Y1 - 2018/7/1

N2 - Positron emission tomography (PET) can, when used with appropriate radioligands, non-invasively capture temporal and spatial information about acute changes in brain neurotransmitter systems. We here evaluate the 5-HT1B receptor partial agonist PET radioligand, [(11)C]AZ10419369, for its sensitivity to detect changes in endogenous cerebral serotonin levels, as induced by different pharmacological challenges. To enable a direct translation of PET imaging data to changes in brain serotonin levels, we compared the [(11)C]AZ10419369 PET signal in the pig brain to simultaneous measurements of extracellular serotonin levels with microdialysis after various acute interventions (saline, escitalopram, fenfluramine). The interventions increased the cerebral extracellular serotonin levels to two to six times baseline, with fenfluramine being the most potent pharmacological enhancer of serotonin release. The interventions induced a varying degree of decline in [(11)C]AZ10419369 binding in the brain, consistent with the occupancy competition model. The observed correlation between changes in the extracellular serotonin level in the pig brain and the 5-HT1B receptor occupancy indicates that [(11)C]AZ10419369 binding is sensitive to changes in endogenous serotonin levels to a degree equivalent to that reported of [(11)C]raclopride to dopamine, a much used approach to detect in vivo change in cerebral dopamine.

AB - Positron emission tomography (PET) can, when used with appropriate radioligands, non-invasively capture temporal and spatial information about acute changes in brain neurotransmitter systems. We here evaluate the 5-HT1B receptor partial agonist PET radioligand, [(11)C]AZ10419369, for its sensitivity to detect changes in endogenous cerebral serotonin levels, as induced by different pharmacological challenges. To enable a direct translation of PET imaging data to changes in brain serotonin levels, we compared the [(11)C]AZ10419369 PET signal in the pig brain to simultaneous measurements of extracellular serotonin levels with microdialysis after various acute interventions (saline, escitalopram, fenfluramine). The interventions increased the cerebral extracellular serotonin levels to two to six times baseline, with fenfluramine being the most potent pharmacological enhancer of serotonin release. The interventions induced a varying degree of decline in [(11)C]AZ10419369 binding in the brain, consistent with the occupancy competition model. The observed correlation between changes in the extracellular serotonin level in the pig brain and the 5-HT1B receptor occupancy indicates that [(11)C]AZ10419369 binding is sensitive to changes in endogenous serotonin levels to a degree equivalent to that reported of [(11)C]raclopride to dopamine, a much used approach to detect in vivo change in cerebral dopamine.

KW - Journal Article

U2 - 10.1177/0271678x17719390

DO - 10.1177/0271678x17719390

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 28685616

SN - 0271-678X

VL - 38

SP - 1243

EP - 1252

JO - Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism

JF - Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism

IS - 7

ER -