Gilles Tamagnan

Molecular Neuroimaging LLC, USA

Abstract

[O25] PET and SPECT imaging using neuropeptides: methods for targeted development of radiotracers, from bench to bed

This review considers how a new radiotracer for positron emission tomography (PET) or single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) is developed, from its start in the eyes of a chemist to its fruition at the bed of a subject, more specifically with application toward the study of Neurodegenerative Disease. The different phases of the development of radiopharmaceuticals are similar to those of classical pharmaceuticals, including the observation that most of the molecules synthesized by medicinal chemists fail to become useful tools at one of the steps. When a compound is synthesized, in-vitro binding assays are performed to determine its affinity for the target chosen as well its affinity for competing targets. Labeling and initial in-vivo study allows to determine the distribution of the new radiotracer, and to determine if further studies are warranted. After identification of potential candidates, the right animal model needs to be chosen. A rodent model with appropriate tumor could be of choice for the development of radioligands for oncology, while for the development of radiotracer for neuroimaging, a non-human primate could be more appropriate. For specific diseases, genetically altered rodent models give the most unequivocal assurance of disease etiology.

Examples of use of imaging agents in preclinical and in clinical Phase I-III studies in human will be shown.

Biography

Gilles Tamagnan, PhD is the head of chemistry and preclinical development at the Institute of degenerative Disorders. Dr. Tamagnan received his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry at the University Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France in 1993. After a post-doctoral fellowship spent on the crystallization of protein, Dr. Tamagnan completed a second postdoctoral fellowship at RBI in Boston, Massachusetts. His research subject was to develop new ligands for the diagnosis of Parkinson disease using compounds labeled with radioactive atoms. He joined the NeuroImaging program at Yale University in June 1997 to work on the development of new radioligands to study neurodegenerative diseases and came to IND in 2003 and is Associate Professor (adjunct) in the department of Psychiatry at Yale school of Medicine. Dr. Tamagnan has been the recipient of numerous grants and is the co-inventor of ligands used for the diagnosis of Parkinson disease.