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Current Pharmaceutical Design

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 1381-6128
ISSN (Online): 1873-4286

Targeting Functional Biomarkers in Schizophrenia with Neuroimaging

Author(s): Korey P. Wylie, Jason Smucny, Kristina T. Legget and Jason R. Tregellas

Volume 22, Issue 14, 2016

Page: [2117 - 2123] Pages: 7

DOI: 10.2174/1381612822666160127113912

Price: $65

Abstract

Many of the most debilitating symptoms for psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia remain poorly treated. As such, the development of novel treatments is urgently needed. Unfortunately, the costs associated with high failure rates for investigational compounds as they enter clinical trials has led to pharmaceutical companies downsizing or eliminating research programs needed to develop these drugs. One way of increasing the probability of success for investigational compounds is to incorporate alternative methods of identifying biological targets in order to more effectively screen new drugs. A promising method of accomplishing this goal for psychiatric drugs is to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). fMRI investigates neural circuits, shedding light on the biology that generates symptoms such as hallucinations. Once identified, relevant neural circuits can be targeted with pharmacologic interventions and the response to these drugs measured with fMRI. This review describes the early use of fMRI in this context, and discusses the alpha7 nicotinic receptor agonist 3-(2,4-dimethoxybenzylidene) anabaseine (DMXB-A), as an example of the potential value of fMRI for psychiatric drug development.

Keywords: Biomarkers, functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI, nicotine, alpha7 nicotinic receptor, functional connectivity, SPEM.


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