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Displaying One Session

Educational
Date
Sun, 11.04.2021
Session Time
08:00 - 09:30
Room
Channel 1
Session Description
Neuroimaging techniques including Positron emission tomography (PET), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and Electroencephalography (EEG) have revolutionised the development of new therapeutics for the treatment of brain disorders and elucidated the role of neural systems and neurotransmitters underlying their development and maintenance. Prof. Knudsen will describe how PET can further our understanding of complex brain disorders such as depression through a better understanding of particular neurotransmitters such as serotonin. Dr Dawson will describe how fMRI can be used to reveal the precise drug-mechanisms that lead to functional improvement in cognition in depressed patients. Finally, Dr. Arns will show how EEG can be combined with other biological measures to predict differential response to various antidepressant treatments and be used for stratified treatments in psychiatry. The promise of these neuroimaging techniques is that they will eventually lead to a personalised treatment programs that allows patients to return to good mental health sooner than current standard of care protocols.
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LIVE - ECNP Symposium hosted by the EPA: The Neuroimaging of Pharmacological Effects (ID 984) No Topic Needed

ECNP0001 - PET Imaging of Receptor Occupancy

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Live
Date
Sun, 11.04.2021
Session Time
08:00 - 09:30
Room
Channel 1
Lecture Time
08:00 - 08:23

ABSTRACT

Abstract Body

The discovery and development of drugs for treatment of brain disorders is an extremely challenging process requiring large resources, timelines, and associated costs. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) enables in vivo neuroimaging of various components of receptors, transporters, enzymatic activity and other types of proteins. PET also allows for studying the response to physiological or drug interventions in experimental medicine studies. Moreover, PET neuroimaging can assist to establish diagnoses in certain brain disorders and thereby improve patient selection and stratification for clinical trials.

Over the past couple of decades, PET neuroimaging has thus become a central component of the evaluation of novel drugs for brain disorders, enabling decision-making in phase I studies, where early discharge of risk provides increased confidence to progress a candidate to a later phase testing at the right dose level or alternatively to kill a compound through failure to meet key criteria. The so called "3 pillars" of drug survival, namely; tissue exposure, target engagement, and pharmacologic activity, are particularly well suited for evaluation by PET imaging.

Molecular neuroimaging has thus increasingly established itself as a unique tool that not only can demonstrate drug penetration and kinetics in the brain, but also identify pharmacodynamic effects, e.g., changes in glucose metabolism. It can also quantitate therapeutic action in vivo by determining, e.g., drug occupancy whereby the relevant dose ranges to be used in clinical efficacy trials can be determined.

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LIVE - ECNP Symposium hosted by the EPA: The Neuroimaging of Pharmacological Effects (ID 984) No Topic Needed

ECNP0002 - Using MRI to Advance New Drugs Discovery for Psychiatric Disorders

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Live
Date
Sun, 11.04.2021
Session Time
08:00 - 09:30
Room
Channel 1
Lecture Time
08:23 - 08:46
LIVE - ECNP Symposium hosted by the EPA: The Neuroimaging of Pharmacological Effects (ID 984) No Topic Needed

ECNP0003 - EEG and ECG Based Response Predictors in Depression: Time for Personalised Medicine or Treatment Stratification?

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Live
Date
Sun, 11.04.2021
Session Time
08:00 - 09:30
Room
Channel 1
Lecture Time
08:46 - 09:09

ABSTRACT

Abstract Body

In depression (MDD) treatment there is a clear need for novel treatments, biomarkers and individualized treatment approaches. One of the most promising and most widely investigated biomarkers for antidepressant treatments is the EEG. Most EEG biomarkers however, still lack robustness and reproducibility and suffer significant publication bias as highlighted in a recent meta-analysis (Widge et al., 2018). Therefore, large controlled validation studies are needed with a focus on robustness, replication and clinical relevance. In this presentation results will be presented from the largest EEG Biomarker study to date, the international Study to Predict Optimized Treatment in Depression (iSPOT-D), where 1008 MDD patients were randomized to Escitalopram, Sertraline and Venlafaxine. Drug-class specific (Arns et al., 2016) and drug-specific (Arns, Gordon & Boutros, 2015) biomarkers will be highlighted as well as preliminary data from a prospective feasibility trial. Furthermore, data will be presented on repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) treatment in MDD on EEG and clinical predictors (Krepel et al., 2018; 2019) and a new method called Neuro-Cardiac-Guided TMS (NCG TMS), that exploits network connectivity in the frontal vagal pathway, as a target engagement approach (Iseger et al., 2019). Finally, clinical implications and implementations will be discussed from a ‘treatment stratification’ perspective, which might be a more realistic goal relative to ‘personalized medicine’ perspective.

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LIVE - ECNP Symposium hosted by the EPA: The Neuroimaging of Pharmacological Effects (ID 984) No Topic Needed

Live Q&A

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Live
Date
Sun, 11.04.2021
Session Time
08:00 - 09:30
Room
Channel 1
Lecture Time
09:09 - 09:29