Positron Emission Tomography News and Research

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Omeros doses first patient in second Phase 2 clinical trial of OMS824

Omeros Corporation today announced dosing of the first patient in a second Phase 2 clinical trial of OMS824, the company's phosphodiesterase 10 (PDE10) inhibitor being developed for the treatment of schizophrenia, Huntington's disease (HD) and other cognitive disorders. The Phase 2 trial will evaluate the tolerability, safety, pharmacokinetics and performance on a battery of tests in patients with symptomatic HD.

19 Feb 2014

Study shows increased brain reactivity may facilitate memorisation of dreams

Some people recall a dream every morning, whereas others rarely recall one. A team led by Perrine Ruby, an Inserm Research Fellow at the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (Inserm/CNRS/Universit- Claude Bernard Lyon 1), has studied the brain activity of these two types of dreamers in order to understand the differences between them.

17 Feb 2014

Omeros announces additional positive data from OMS824 Phase 1 program

Omeros Corporation today announced additional positive data from its Phase 1 program for OMS824, the lead compound in Omeros' phosphodiesterase 10 (PDE10) program. This clinical trial evaluated the extent to which OMS824 binds to PDE10, an enzyme expressed in the region of the brain that has been linked to a wide range of diseases that affect cognition. In the latest cohort enrolled in this trial, OMS824 achieved a high of approximately 70‑percent engagement at PDE10 without evidence of extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS).

11 Feb 2014

Omeros announces positive results from Phase 2a trial of OMS824 in patients with schizophrenia

Omeros Corporation today announced positive results from a Phase 2a clinical trial of OMS824, the company's phosphodiesterase 10 (PDE10) inhibitor, in which the drug was well tolerated and demonstrated comparable systemic pharmacokinetics when administered alone and concomitantly with approved antipsychotic agents in patients with schizophrenia. OMS824 selectively inhibits PDE10, an enzyme expressed in areas of the brain linked to a wide range of diseases that affect cognition, including schizophrenia and Huntington's disease.

29 Jan 2014

Increased inflammation following infection impairs brain's ability to form spatial memories

Increased inflammation following an infection impairs the brain's ability to form spatial memories - according to new research. The impairment results from a decrease in glucose metabolism in the brain's memory centre, disrupting the neural circuits involved in learning and memory.

25 Jan 2014

Gene therapy edges closer for Parkinson’s disease

Lentiviral vector-based gene therapy is well tolerated and may improve motor function in patients with Parkinson’s disease, shows an open-label study published in The Lancet.

20 Jan 2014

Research highlights potential of newly developed radiopharmaceuticals for imaging melanoma metastases

With low survival rates for patients with metastasized melanoma, accurate staging and effective treatments are critical to extending life. New research published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine highlights the potential of newly developed radiopharmaceuticals with benzamide for the imaging of metastases and as a targeted systemic therapy.

8 Jan 2014

PET imaging of brain reveals ketamine may act as antidepressant by regulating serotonin activity

Ketamine is a potent anesthetic employed in human and veterinary medicine, and sometimes used illegally as a recreational drug. The drug is also a promising candidate for the fast treatment of depression in patients who do not respond to other medications.

7 Jan 2014

ADC values and diffusion weighted imaging can be used to detect early cerebral infarction

Supratentorial cerebral infarction can cause functional inhibition of remote regions such as the cerebellum, which may be relevant to diaschisis. This phenomenon is often analyzed using positron emission tomography and single photon emission CT. However, these methods are expensive and radioactive.

6 Jan 2014

Drugs to treat type 2 diabetes may have different effects on hearts of men and women

Widely used treatments for type 2 diabetes have different effects on the hearts of men and women, even as the drugs control blood sugar equally well in both sexes, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

13 Dec 2013

18F-FDOPA imaging can help distinguish radiation-induced lesions in patients with brain metastases

Imaging with the molecular imaging tracer 18F-FDOPA can help distinguish radiation-induced lesions from new tumor growth in patients who have been treated with radiation for brain metastases, according to new research published in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Using this amino acid tracer, researchers found that physicians could accurately differentiate the two types of lesions 83 percent of the time. Progression-free survival could also be predicted through evaluating the 18F-FDOPA imaging results.

4 Dec 2013

Risk factors for Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease has joined cancer at the top of the list of feared diagnoses, and although Alzheimer's does have the potential to devastate millions of patients and families, there are reasons for hope - and possibly opportunities to reduce risk or alter the course of disease progression, according to Keith Black, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai.

26 Nov 2013

Brain signals in fibromyalgia patients: an interview with Dr. Marco Loggia from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston

Fibromyalgia patients suffer from a variety of symptoms, including widespread body pain and myofascial tenderness. They are ‘hyperalgesic’, which means that if you give them a stimulus that in healthy subjects is just mildly painful (or even completely innocuous), they may perceive it as excruciatingly painful.

19 Nov 2013

Study explains why south Asians have high susceptibility to developing type 2 diabetes

Lower amounts of brown adipose tissue (BAT, or ‘brown fat’) could help explain why south Asians—who make up a fifth of the world’s population—have an exceptionally high susceptibility to developing metabolic problems such as obesity and type 2 diabetes.

13 Nov 2013

Novel approach confirms dysfunctional energy production in schizophrenia

A method of directly assessing creatine kinase in the brain provides “direct and compelling” evidence for abnormal bioenergetics in the brains of patients with schizophrenia, say the study authors.

12 Nov 2013

‘Pioneering’ non-invasive coronary plaque imaging revealed

Combined 18F-sodium fluoride positron emission tomography–computed tomography allows physicians to visualize high-risk or ruptured coronary atherosclerotic plaques in patients with myocardial infarction or stable angina, research shows.

12 Nov 2013

FDG-PET parameter predicts locally advanced lung cancer survival

High post-treatment concentrations of a radioactive imaging marker are predictive of worse overall survival from inoperable, locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer, prospective study findings suggest.

31 Oct 2013

Physiological processes in soft tissue pain explored using PET imaging

Physiological processes in soft tissue pain such as chronic tennis elbow can be explored using diagnostic imaging methods. This is demonstrated by researchers from Uppsala University and the results are now being published in the prestigious journal PLOS ONE.

29 Oct 2013

New unique nanostructure to target drug-delivery treatment of cancer cells

A unique nanostructure developed by a team of international researchers, including those at the University of Cincinnati, promises improved all-in-one detection, diagnoses and drug-delivery treatment of cancer cells.