Alterations in resting-state functional activity and connectivity for major depressive disorder appetite and weight disturbance phenotypes.

BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is often accompanied by changes in appetite and weight. Prior task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) findings suggest these MDD phenotypes are associated with altered reward and interoceptive processing. METHODS: Using resting-state fMRI data, we compared the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) and seed-based connectivity (SBC) among hyperphagic (n = 77), hypophagic (n = 66), and euphagic (n = 42) MDD groups and a healthy comparison group (n = 38). We examined fALFF and SBC in a mask restricted to reward [nucleus accumbens (NAcc), putamen, caudate, ventral pallidum, and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)] and interoceptive (anterior insula and hypothalamus) regions and also performed exploratory whole-brain analyses. SBC analyses included as seeds the NAcc and also regions demonstrating group differences in fALFF (i.e. right lateral OFC and right anterior insula). All analyses used threshold-free cluster enhancement. RESULTS: Mask-restricted analyses revealed stronger fALFF in the right lateral OFC, and weaker fALFF in the right anterior insula, for hyperphagic MDD v. healthy comparison. We also found weaker SBC between the right lateral OFC and left anterior insula for hyperphagic MDD v. healthy comparison. Whole-brain analyses revealed weaker fALFF in the right anterior insula, and stronger SBC between the right lateral OFC and left precentral gyrus, for hyperphagic MDD v. healthy comparison. Findings were no longer significant after controlling for body mass index, which was higher for hyperphagic MDD. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest hyperphagic MDD may be associated with altered activity in and connectivity between interoceptive and reward regions.

Does the change in glutamate to GABA ratio correlate with change in depression severity? A randomized, double-blind clinical trial.

Previous proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) studies suggest a perturbation in glutamate and/or GABA in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). However, no studies examine the ratio of glutamate and glutamine (Glx) to GABA (Glx/GABA) as it relates to depressive symptoms, which may be more sensitive than either single metabolite. Using a within-subject design, we hypothesized that reduction in depressive symptoms correlates with reduction in Glx/GABA in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The present trial is a randomized clinical trial that utilized 1H-MRS to examine Glx/GABA before and after 8 weeks of escitalopram or placebo. Participants completed the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS17) and underwent magnetic resonance spectroscopy before and after treatment. Two GABA-edited MEGA-PRESS acquisitions were interleaved with a water unsuppressed reference scan. GABA and Glx were quantified from the average difference spectrum, with preprocessing using Gannet and spectral fitting using TARQUIN. Linear mixed models were utilized to evaluate relationships between change in HDRS17 and change in Glx/GABA using a univariate linear regression model, multiple linear regression incorporating treatment type as a covariate, and Bayes Factor (BF) hypothesis testing to examine strength of evidence. No significant relationship was detected between percent change in Glx, GABA, or Glx/GABA and percent change in HDRS17, regardless of treatment type. Further, MDD severity before/after treatment did not correlate with ACC Glx/GABA. In light of variable findings in the literature and lack of association in our investigation, future directions should include evaluating glutamate and glutamine individually to shed light on the underpinnings of MDD severity. Advancing Personalized Antidepressant Treatment Using PET/MRI, ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02623205.

An improved synthesis of [18 F]VAT and its precursor.

The vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT) in the brain is an important presynaptic cholinergic biomarker, and neuroimaging studies of VAChT may provide in vivo information about psychiatric and neurologic conditions including Alzheimer's disease that are not accessible by other methods. The 18 F-labeled radiotracer, ((-)-(1-(-8-(2-[18 F]fluoroethoxy)-3-hydroxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalen-2-yl)piperidin-4-yl)(4-fluorophenyl)-methanone ([18 F]VAT, 1), was reported as a selective and high affinity ligand for the in vivo imaging of VAChT. The synthesis of [18 F]VAT has been reported in a two-step procedure with total 140 min, which includes preparation of 2-[18 F]fluoroethyltosylate and alkylation of benzovesamicol (-)-5 precursor with this radiosynthon using two different automated production modules consecutively. A multiple step synthetic route was employed for the synthesis of stereospecific precursor benzovesamicol (-)-5, which is difficult to be adapted for scale-up. To make the production of this tracer more amenable for clinical imaging, we present an improved total synthesis protocol to attain [18 F]VAT: (1) a tosylethoxy group being pre-installed tosylate precursor (-)-8 is synthesized to render a simple one-step radiofluorination under mild conditions; (2) The key optically active intermediate benzovesamicol (-)-5 was obtained via the regio- and enantio-enriched ring-opening amination of meso-epoxide 3 with 4-phenylpiperidine derivative 2 under catalysis of a chiral salenCo(III) catalyst 4b, which dramatically simplifies the synthetic route of the tosylate precursor (-)-8. [18 F]VAT 1 was prepared within ~65 min with desired chemical and radiochemical purities, via a fully automated procedure, using a commercial PET tracer production module. The final drug product was obtained as a sterile, pyrogen-free solution that conforms United States Pharmacopeia (USP) <823> requirements.

Exploration of baseline and early changes in neurocognitive characteristics as predictors of treatment response to bupropion, sertraline, and placebo in the EMBARC clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: Treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD) is imprecise and often involves trial-and-error to determine the most effective approach. To facilitate optimal treatment selection and inform timely adjustment, the current study investigated whether neurocognitive variables could predict an antidepressant response in a treatment-specific manner. METHODS: In the two-stage Establishing Moderators and Biosignatures of Antidepressant Response for Clinical Care (EMBARC) trial, outpatients with non-psychotic recurrent MDD were first randomized to an 8-week course of sertraline selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor or placebo. Behavioral measures of reward responsiveness, cognitive control, verbal fluency, psychomotor, and cognitive processing speeds were collected at baseline and week 1. Treatment responders then continued on another 8-week course of the same medication, whereas non-responders to sertraline or placebo were crossed-over under double-blinded conditions to bupropion noradrenaline/dopamine reuptake inhibitor or sertraline, respectively. Hamilton Rating for Depression scores were also assessed at baseline, weeks 8, and 16. RESULTS: Greater improvements in psychomotor and cognitive processing speeds within the first week, as well as better pretreatment performance in these domains, were specifically associated with higher likelihood of response to placebo. Moreover, better reward responsiveness, poorer cognitive control and greater verbal fluency were associated with greater likelihood of response to bupropion in patients who previously failed to respond to sertraline. CONCLUSION: These exploratory results warrant further scrutiny, but demonstrate that quick and non-invasive behavioral tests may have substantial clinical value in predicting antidepressant treatment response.

Childhood trauma history is linked to abnormal brain connectivity in major depression.

Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) present with heterogeneous symptom profiles, while neurobiological mechanisms are still largely unknown. Brain network studies consistently report disruptions of resting-state networks (RSNs) in patients with MDD, including hypoconnectivity in the frontoparietal network (FPN), hyperconnectivity in the default mode network (DMN), and increased connection between the DMN and FPN. Using a large, multisite fMRI dataset (n = 189 patients with MDD, n = 39 controls), we investigated network connectivity differences within and between RSNs in patients with MDD and healthy controls. We found that MDD could be characterized by a network model with the following abnormalities relative to controls: (i) lower within-network connectivity in three task-positive RSNs [FPN, dorsal attention network (DAN), and cingulo-opercular network (CON)], (ii) higher within-network connectivity in two intrinsic networks [DMN and salience network (SAN)], and (iii) higher within-network connectivity in two sensory networks [sensorimotor network (SMN) and visual network (VIS)]. Furthermore, we found significant alterations in connectivity between a number of these networks. Among patients with MDD, a history of childhood trauma and current symptoms quantified by clinical assessments were associated with a multivariate pattern of seven different within- and between-network connectivities involving the DAN, FPN, CON, subcortical regions, ventral attention network (VAN), auditory network (AUD), VIS, and SMN. Overall, our study showed that traumatic childhood experiences and dimensional symptoms are linked to abnormal network architecture in MDD. Our results suggest that RSN connectivity may explain underlying neurobiological mechanisms of MDD symptoms and has the potential to serve as an effective diagnostic biomarker.

Discovery and replication of cerebral blood flow differences in major depressive disorder.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a serious, heterogeneous disorder accompanied by brain-related changes, many of which are still to be discovered or refined. Arterial spin labeling (ASL) is a neuroimaging technique used to measure cerebral blood flow (CBF; perfusion) to understand brain function and detect differences among groups. CBF differences have been detected in MDD, and may reveal biosignatures of disease-state. The current work aimed to discover and replicate differences in CBF between MDD participants and healthy controls (HC) as part of the EMBARC study. Participants underwent neuroimaging at baseline, prior to starting study medication, to investigate biosignatures in MDD. Relative CBF (rCBF) was calculated and compared between 106 MDD and 36 HC EMBARC participants (whole-brain Discovery); and 58 MDD EMBARC participants and 58 HC from the DLBS study (region-of-interest Replication). Both analyses revealed reduced rCBF in the right parahippocampus, thalamus, fusiform and middle temporal gyri, as well as the left and right insula, for those with MDD relative to HC. Both samples also revealed increased rCBF in MDD relative to HC in both the left and right inferior parietal lobule, including the supramarginal and angular gyri. Cingulate and prefrontal regions did not fully replicate. Lastly, significant associations were detected between rCBF in replicated regions and clinical measures of MDD chronicity. These results (1) provide reliable evidence for ASL in detecting differences in perfusion for multiple brain regions thought to be important in MDD, and (2) highlight the potential role of using perfusion as a biosignature of MDD.

Reward related ventral striatal activity and differential response to sertraline versus placebo in depressed individuals.

Medications to treat major depressive disorder (MDD) are not equally effective across patients. Given that neural response to rewards is altered in MDD and given that reward-related circuitry is modulated by dopamine and serotonin, we examined, for the first time, whether reward-related neural activity moderated response to sertraline, an antidepressant medication that targets these neurotransmitters. A total of 222 unmedicated adults with MDD randomized to receive sertraline (n = 110) or placebo (n = 112) in the Establishing Moderators and Biosignatures of Antidepressant Response in Clinical Care (EMBARC) study completed demographic and clinical assessments, and pretreatment functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a reward task. We tested whether an index of reward system function in the ventral striatum (VS), a key reward circuitry region, moderated differential response to sertraline versus placebo, assessed with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HSRD) over 8 weeks. We observed a significant moderation effect of the reward index, reflecting the temporal dynamics of VS activity, on week-8 depression levels (Fs ≥ 9.67, ps ≤ 0.002). Specifically, VS responses that were abnormal with respect to predictions from reinforcement learning theory were associated with lower week-8 depression symptoms in the sertraline versus placebo arms. Thus, a more abnormal pattern of pretreatment VS dynamic response to reward expectancy (expected outcome value) and prediction error (difference between expected and actual outcome), likely reflecting serotonergic and dopaminergic deficits, was associated with better response to sertraline than placebo. Pretreatment measures of reward-related VS activity may serve as objective neural markers to advance efforts to personalize interventions by guiding individual-level choice of antidepressant treatment.

Examining the underpinnings of loudness dependence of auditory evoked potentials with positron emission tomography.

Loudness dependence of auditory evoked potentials (LDAEP) has long been considered to reflect central basal serotonin transmission. However, the relationship between LDAEP and individual serotonin receptors and transporters has not been fully explored in humans and may involve other neurotransmitter systems. To examine LDAEP's relationship with the serotonin system, we performed PET using serotonin-1A (5-HT1A) imaging via [11C]CUMI-101 and serotonin transporter (5-HTT) imaging via [11C]DASB on a mixed sample of healthy controls (n â€‹= â€‹4: 4 females, 0 males), patients with unipolar (MDD, n â€‹= â€‹11: 4 females, 7 males) and bipolar depression (BD, n â€‹= â€‹8: 4 females, 4 males). On these same participants, we also performed electroencephalography (EEG) within a week of PET scanning, using 1000 â€‹Hz tones of varying intensity to evoke LDAEP. We then evaluated the relationship between LDAEP and 5-HT1A or 5-HTT binding in both the raphe (5-HT1A)/midbrain (5-HTT) areas and in the temporal cortex. We found that LDAEP was significantly correlated with 5-HT1A positively and with 5-HTT negatively in the temporal cortex (p â€‹< â€‹0.05), but not correlated with either in midbrain or raphe. In males only, exploratory analysis showed multiple regions in which LDAEP significantly correlated with 5-HT1A throughout the brain; we did not find this with 5-HTT. This multimodal study partially validates preclinical models of a serotonergic influence on LDAEP. Replication in larger samples is necessary to further clarify our understanding of the role of serotonin in perception of auditory tones.

Prediction of lithium treatment response in bipolar depression using 5-HTT and 5-HT1A PET.

BACKGROUND: Lithium, one of the few effective treatments for bipolar depression (BPD), has been hypothesized to work by enhancing serotonergic transmission. Despite preclinical evidence, it is unknown whether lithium acts via the serotonergic system. Here we examined the potential of serotonin transporter (5-HTT) or serotonin 1A receptor (5-HT1A) pre-treatment binding to predict lithium treatment response and remission. We hypothesized that lower pre-treatment 5-HTT and higher pre-treatment 5-HT1A binding would predict better clinical response. Additional analyses investigated group differences between BPD and healthy controls and the relationship between change in binding pre- to post-treatment and clinical response. Twenty-seven medication-free patients with BPD currently in a depressive episode received positron emission tomography (PET) scans using 5-HTT tracer [11C]DASB, a subset also received a PET scan using 5-HT1A tracer [11C]-CUMI-101 before and after 8 weeks of lithium monotherapy. Metabolite-corrected arterial input functions were used to estimate binding potential, proportional to receptor availability. Fourteen patients with BPD with both [11C]DASB and [11C]-CUMI-101 pre-treatment scans and 8 weeks of post-treatment clinical scores were included in the prediction analysis examining the potential of either pre-treatment 5-HTT or 5-HT1A or the combination of both to predict post-treatment clinical scores. RESULTS: We found lower pre-treatment 5-HTT binding (p = 0.003) and lower 5-HT1A binding (p = 0.035) were both significantly associated with improved clinical response. Pre-treatment 5-HTT predicted remission with 71% accuracy (77% specificity, 60% sensitivity), while 5-HT1A binding was able to predict remission with 85% accuracy (87% sensitivity, 80% specificity). The combined prediction analysis using both 5-HTT and 5-HT1A was able to predict remission with 84.6% accuracy (87.5% specificity, 60% sensitivity). Additional analyses BPD and controls pre- or post-treatment, and the change in binding were not significant and unrelated to treatment response (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that while lithium may not act directly via 5-HTT or 5-HT1A to ameliorate depressive symptoms, pre-treatment binding may be a potential biomarker for successful treatment of BPD with lithium. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: PET and MRI Brain Imaging of Bipolar Disorder Identifier: NCT01880957; URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01880957.

Personalized prediction of antidepressant v. placebo response: evidence from the EMBARC study.

BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a highly heterogeneous condition in terms of symptom presentation and, likely, underlying pathophysiology. Accordingly, it is possible that only certain individuals with MDD are well-suited to antidepressants. A potentially fruitful approach to parsing this heterogeneity is to focus on promising endophenotypes of depression, such as neuroticism, anhedonia, and cognitive control deficits. METHODS: Within an 8-week multisite trial of sertraline v. placebo for depressed adults (n = 216), we examined whether the combination of machine learning with a Personalized Advantage Index (PAI) can generate individualized treatment recommendations on the basis of endophenotype profiles coupled with clinical and demographic characteristics. RESULTS: Five pre-treatment variables moderated treatment response. Higher depression severity and neuroticism, older age, less impairment in cognitive control, and being employed were each associated with better outcomes to sertraline than placebo. Across 1000 iterations of a 10-fold cross-validation, the PAI model predicted that 31% of the sample would exhibit a clinically meaningful advantage [post-treatment Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) difference ⩾3] with sertraline relative to placebo. Although there were no overall outcome differences between treatment groups (d = 0.15), those identified as optimally suited to sertraline at pre-treatment had better week 8 HRSD scores if randomized to sertraline (10.7) than placebo (14.7) (d = 0.58). CONCLUSIONS: A subset of MDD patients optimally suited to sertraline can be identified on the basis of pre-treatment characteristics. This model must be tested prospectively before it can be used to inform treatment selection. However, findings demonstrate the potential to improve individual outcomes through algorithm-guided treatment recommendations.

In vivo PET Imaging of [11C]CIMBI-5, a 5-HT2AR Agonist Radiotracer in Nonhuman Primates.

PURPOSE: 5-HT2AR exists in high and low affinity states. Agonist PET tracers measure binding to the active high affinity site and thus provide a functionally relevant measure of the receptor. Limited in vivo data have been reported so far for a comparison of agonist versus antagonist tracers for 5-HT2AR used as a proof of principle for measurement of high and low affinity states of this receptor. We compared the in vivo binding of [11C]CIMBI-5, a 5-HT2AR agonist, and of the antagonist [11C]M100907, in monkeys and baboons. METHODS: [11C]CIMBI-5 and [11C]M100907 baseline PET scans were performed in anesthetized male baboons (n=2) and male vervet monkeys (n=2) with an ECAT EXACT HR+ and GE 64-slice PET/CT Discovery VCT scanners. Blocking studies were performed in vervet monkeys by pretreatment with MDL100907 (0.5 mg/kg, i.v.) 60 minutes prior to the scan. Regional distribution volumes and binding potentials were calculated for each ROI using the likelihood estimation in graphical analysis and Logan plot, with either plasma input function or reference region as input, and simplified reference tissue model approaches. RESULTS: PET imaging of [11C]CIMBI-5 in baboons and monkeys showed the highest binding in 5-HT2AR-rich cortical regions, while the lowest binding was observed in cerebellum, consistent with the expected distribution of 5-HT2AR. Very low free fractions and rapid metabolism were observed for [11C]CIMBI-5 in baboon plasma. Binding potential values for [11C]CIMBI-5 were 25-33% lower than those for [11C]MDL100907 in the considered brain regions. CONCLUSION: The lower binding potential of [11C]CIMBI-5 in comparison to [11C]MDL100907 is likely due to the preferential binding of the former to the high affinity site in vivo in contrast to the antagonist,  [11C]MDL100907, which binds to both high and low affinity sites.

Relations between cortical thickness, serotonin 1A receptor binding, and structural connectivity: A multimodal imaging study.

Serotonin 1A (5-HT1A ) receptors play a direct role in neuronal development, cell proliferation, and dendritic branching. We hypothesized that variability in 5-HT1A binding can affect cortical thickness, and may account for a subtype of major depressive disorder (MDD) in which both are altered. To evaluate this, we measured cortical thickness from structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and 5-HT1A binding by positron emission tomography (PET) in an exploratory study. To examine a range of 5-HT1A binding and cortical thickness values, we recruited 25 healthy controls and 19 patients with MDD. We hypothesized increased 5-HT1A binding in the raphe nucleus (RN) would be negatively associated with cortical thickness due to reduced serotonergic transmission. Contrary to our hypothesis, raphe 5-HT1A binding was positively correlated with cortical thickness in right posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), a region implicated in the default mode network. Cortical thickness was also positively correlated with 5-HT1A in each cortical region. We further hypothesized that the strength of 5-HT1A -cortical thickness correlation depends on the number of axons between the raphe nucleus and each region. To explore this we related 5-HT1A -cortical thickness correlation coefficients to the number of tracts connecting that region and the raphe, as measured by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in an independent sample. The 5-HT1A -cortical thickness association correlated significantly with the number of tracts to each region, supporting our hypothesis. We posit a defect in the raphe may affect the PCC within the default mode network in MDD through serotonergic fibers, resulting in increased ruminative processing.

Development and evaluation of a multimodal marker of major depressive disorder.

This study aimed to identify biomarkers of major depressive disorder (MDD), by relating neuroimage-derived measures to binary (MDD/control), ordinal (severe MDD/mild MDD/control), or continuous (depression severity) outcomes. To address MDD heterogeneity, factors (severity of psychic depression, motivation, anxiety, psychosis, and sleep disturbance) were also used as outcomes. A multisite, multimodal imaging (diffusion MRI [dMRI] and structural MRI [sMRI]) cohort (52 controls and 147 MDD patients) and several modeling techniques-penalized logistic regression, random forest, and support vector machine (SVM)-were used. An additional cohort (25 controls and 83 MDD patients) was used for validation. The optimally performing classifier (SVM) had a 26.0% misclassification rate (binary), 52.2 ± 1.69% accuracy (ordinal) and r = .36 correlation coefficient (p < .001, continuous). Using SVM, R2 values for prediction of any MDD factors were <10%. Binary classification in the external data set resulted in 87.95% sensitivity and 32.00% specificity. Though observed classification rates are too low for clinical utility, four image-based features contributed to accuracy across all models and analyses-two dMRI-based measures (average fractional anisotropy in the right cuneus and left insula) and two sMRI-based measures (asymmetry in the volume of the pars triangularis and the cerebellum) and may serve as a priori regions for future analyses. The poor accuracy of classification and predictive results found here reflects current equivocal findings and sheds light on challenges of using these modalities for MDD biomarker identification. Further, this study suggests a paradigm (e.g., multiple classifier evaluation with external validation) for future studies to avoid nongeneralizable results.

Diffusion Entropy: A Potential Neuroimaging Biomarker of Bipolar Disorder in the Temporal Pole.

Despite much research, bipolar depression remains poorly understood, with no clinically useful biomarkers for its diagnosis. The paralimbic system has become a target for biomarker research, with paralimbic structural connectivity commonly reported to distinguish bipolar patients from controls in tractography-based diffusion MRI studies, despite inconsistent findings in voxel-based studies. The purpose of this analysis was to validate existing findings with traditional diffusion MRI metrics and investigate the utility of a novel diffusion MRI metric, entropy of diffusion, in the search for bipolar depression biomarkers. We performed group-level analysis on 9 un-medicated (6 medication-naïve; 3 medication-free for at least 33 days) bipolar patients in a major depressive episode and 9 matched healthy controls to compare: (1) average mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA) and; (2) MD and FA histogram entropy-a statistical measure of distribution homogeneity-in the amygdala, hippocampus, orbitofrontal cortex and temporal pole. We also conducted classification analyses with leave-one-out and separate testing dataset (N = 11) approaches. We did not observe statistically significant differences in average MD or FA between the groups in any region. However, in the temporal pole, we observed significantly lower MD entropy in bipolar patients; this finding suggests a regional difference in MD distributions in the absence of an average difference. This metric allowed us to accurately characterize bipolar patients from controls in leave-one-out (accuracy = 83%) and prediction (accuracy = 73%) analyses. This novel application of diffusion MRI yielded not only an interesting separation between bipolar patients and healthy controls, but also accurately classified bipolar patients from controls.

Kappa opioid receptor binding in major depression: A pilot study.

Endogenous kappa opioids mediate pathological responses to stress in animal models. However, the relationship of the kappa opioid receptor (KOR) to life stress and to psychopathology in humans is not well described. This pilot study sought, for the first time, to quantify KOR in major depressive disorder (MDD) in vivo in humans using positron emission tomography (PET). KOR binding was quantified in vivo by PET imaging with the [11 C]GR103545 radiotracer in 13 healthy volunteers and 10 participants with current MDD. We examined the relationship between regional [11 C]GR103545 total volume of distribution (VT ) and diagnosis, childhood trauma, recent life stress, and, in a subsample, salivary cortisol levels during a modified Trier Social Stress Test (mTSST), amygdala, hippocampus, ventral striatum and raphe nuclei. Whole-brain voxel-wise analyses were also performed. [11 C]GR103545 VT did not differ significantly between MDD participants and healthy volunteers in the four a priori ROIs (p = 0.50). [11 C]GR103545 VT was unrelated to reported childhood adversity (p = 0.17) or recent life stress (p = 0.56). A trend-level inverse correlation was observed between [11 C]GR103545 VT and cortisol area-under-the curve with respect to ground during the mTSST (p = 0.081). No whole-brain voxel-wise contrasts were significant. Regional [11 C]GR103545 VT , a measure of in vivo KOR binding, does not differentiate MDD from healthy volunteers in this pilot sample. Future studies may examine KOR binding in subgroups of depressed individuals at increased risk for KOR abnormalities, including co-occurring mood and substance use disorders, as well as depression with psychotic features.

A Novel Strategy to Identify Placebo Responders: Prediction Index of Clinical and Biological Markers in the EMBARC Trial.

BACKGROUND: One in three clinical trial patients with major depressive disorder report symptomatic improvement with placebo. Strategies to mitigate the effect of placebo responses have focused on modifying study design with variable success. Identifying and excluding or controlling for individuals with a high likelihood of responding to placebo may improve clinical trial efficiency and avoid unnecessary medication trials. METHODS: Participants included those assigned to the placebo arm (n = 141) of the Establishing Moderators and Biosignatures for Antidepressant Response in Clinical Care (EMBARC) trial. The elastic net was used to evaluate 283 baseline clinical, behavioral, imaging, and electrophysiological variables to identify the most robust yet parsimonious features that predicted depression severity at the end of the double-blind 8-week trial. Variables retained in at least 50% of the 100 imputed data sets were used in a Bayesian multiple linear regression model to simultaneously predict the probabilities of response and remission. RESULTS: Lower baseline depression severity, younger age, absence of melancholic features or history of physical abuse, less anxious arousal, less anhedonia, less neuroticism, and higher average theta current density in the rostral anterior cingulate predicted a higher likelihood of improvement with placebo. The Bayesian model predicted remission and response with an actionable degree of accuracy (both AUC > 0.73). An interactive calculator was developed predicting the likelihood of placebo response at the individual level. CONCLUSION: Easy-to-measure clinical, behavioral, and electrophysiological assessments can be used to identify placebo responders with a high degree of accuracy. Development of this calculator based on these findings can be used to identify potential placebo responders.

In vivo evaluation of [11C]TMI, a COX-2 selective PET tracer, in baboons.

Overexpression of Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) enzyme is associated with the pathogenesis of inflammation, cancers, stroke, arthritis, and neurological disorders. Because of the involvement of COX-2 in these diseases, quantification of COX-2 expression using Positron Emission Tomography (PET) may be a biological marker for early diagnosis, monitoring of disease progression, and an indicator of effective treatment. At present there is no target-specific or validated PET tracer available for in vivo quantification of COX-2. The objective of this study is to evaluate [11C]TMI, a selective COX-2 inhibitor (Ki ≤ 1 nM) in nonhuman primates using PET imaging. PET imaging in baboons showed that [11C]TMI penetrates the blood brain barrier (BBB) and accumulates in brain in a somewhat heterogeneous pattern. Metabolite analyses indicated that [11C]TMI undergoes no significant metabolism of parent tracer in the plasma for baseline scans, however a relative faster metabolism was found for blocking scan. All the tested quantification approaches provide comparable tracer total distribution volume (VT) estimates in the range of 3.2-7 (mL/cm3). We observed about 25% lower VT values in blocking studies with meloxicam, a nonselective COX-2 inhibitor, compared to baseline [11C]TMI binding. Our findings indicate that [11C]TMI may be a suitable PET tracer for the quantification of COX-2 in vivo. Further experiments are needed to confirm the potential of this tracer in COX-2 overexpressing models for brain diseases.

Will imaging individual raphe nuclei in males with major depressive disorder enhance diagnostic sensitivity and specificity?

BACKGROUND: Positron emission tomography (PET) studies in major depressive disorder (MDD) have reported higher serotonin 1A (5-HT1A ) autoreceptor binding in the raphe. In males, the difference is so large that it can potentially be used as the first biological marker for MDD. However, the raphe includes several nuclei, which project to different regions of the brain and spinal cord and may be differentially involved in disease. We aimed to identify 5-HT1A differences in individual raphe nuclei using PET in order to determine whether use of subnuclei would provide greater sensitivity and specificity of diagnosing MDD. METHODS: We identified individual nuclei using a hybrid set-level technique on an average [11 C]-WAY100635 PET image derived from 52 healthy volunteers (HV). We delineated three nuclei: dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), median raphe nucleus (MRN), and raphe magnus (RMg). An atlas image of these nuclei was created and nonlinearly warped to each subject (through an associated MRI) in a separate sample of 41 males (25 HV, 16 MDD) who underwent [11 C]-WAY100635 PET. RESULTS: 5-HT1A binding was elevated in DRN in MDD (P < .01), and was not different in the RMg and MRN between groups. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves showed that combining DRN and MRN produces highest sensitivity (94%) and specificity (84%) to identify MDD. CONCLUSION: In agreement with postmortem studies, we found higher 5-HT1A autoreceptor binding in MDD selectively in the DRN. 5-HT1A autoreceptor binding in the combined DRN and MRN is a better biomarker for MDD than in the raphe as a whole.

Radiosynthesis and in vivo evaluation of [11C]MOV as a PET imaging agent for COX-2.

Radiosynthesis and in vivo evaluation of [11C]4-[5-(4-methylphenyl)-3-(trifluoromethyl)-1H-pyrazol-1-yl]benzenesulfonamide (methoxy analogue of valdecoxib, [11C]MOV), a COX-2 inhibitor, was conducted in rat and baboon. Synthesis of the reference standard MOV (3), and its desmethyl precursor 2 for radiolabeling were performed using 1,2-diphenylethan-1-one as the starting material in five steps with 15% overall yield. Radiosynthesis of [11C]MOV was accomplished in 40 ±â€¯10% yield and >99% radiochemical purity by reacting the precursor 2 in dimethyl formamide (DMF) with [11C]CH3I followed by removal of the dimethoxytrityl (DMT) protective group using trifluroacetic acid. PET studies in anesthetized baboon showed very low uptake and homogeneous distribution of [11C]MOV in brain. The radioligand underwent rapid metabolism in baboon plasma. MicroPET studies in male Sprague Dawley rats revealed [11C]MOV binding in lower thorax. The tracer binding in rats was partially blocked in heart and duodenum by the administration of 1 mg/kg oral dose of COX-2 inhibitor valdecoxib.

In Vivo Brain Imaging, Biodistribution, and Radiation Dosimetry Estimation of [11C]Celecoxib, a COX-2 PET Ligand, in Nonhuman Primates.

COX-2 selective inhibitors (COXIBs) are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), with fewer side effects compared with non-selective NSAIDs, and are used for the treatment of arthritis, headaches, and other inflammatory diseases of the brain and peripheral tissues. Radiolabeled COXIBs may permit positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of COX-2 localization and activity in diseases, enable monitoring of inflammatory processes, and determine target occupancy of COX-2 activity by NSAIDs, thus, accelerating the development of novel CIXIBs. We synthesized [11C]celecoxib, one of the COXIBs and a prescription drug, and here report its in vivo uptake in the brain, whole body biodistribution, and radiation dosimetry in baboons using PET. Brain imaging experiments were performed in one baboon and whole body PET scans were performed in triplicates in two male baboons using an ECAT ACCEL (Siemens Medical Solutions, Inc. Knoxville) under anesthetic conditions. PET studies in baboons show that [11C]celecoxib penetrates the blood brain barrier (BBB) and accumulates in the brain, followed by a washout of radioactivity. The liver has the highest residence time and the gallbladder is the critical organ for [11C]celecoxib. Organ Level Internal Dose Assessment (OLINDA) estimates indicate that the maximum permissible single study dosage of [11C]celecoxib in humans is 1110 MBq (30 mCi) for both males and females under the 21 CFR 361.1 dose limit for research subjects.