Publicaties

BACKGROUND: Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the serotonin type 3 receptor subunit (HTR3) genes have been associated with psychosomatic symptoms, but it is not clear whether these associations exist in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). AIM: To assess the association of HTR3 polymorphisms with depressive, anxiety, and somatization symptoms in individuals with IBS. METHODS: In this retrospective study, 623 participants with IBS were ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Synaptic damage has been proposed to play a major role in the pathophysiology of Huntington disease (HD), but in vivo evidence in humans is lacking. We performed a PET imaging study to assess synaptic damage and its clinical correlates in early HD in vivo. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, premanifest and early manifest (Shoulson-Fahn stage 1 and 2) HD mutation carriers and age- and sex-matched healthy controls ...

Novel synthetic opioids continue to emerge on recreational drug markets worldwide. In response to legislative bans on fentanyl analogues, non-fentanyl structural templates, such as 2-benzylbenzimidazoles ('nitazenes' ), are being exploited to create new mu-opioid receptor (MOR) agonists. Here, we pharmacologically characterize an emerging cyclic analogue of etonitazene, called N-pyrrolidino etonitazene (etonitazepyne), using in vitro and in vivo ...

Activation of the human cannabinoid receptor type 1 (hCB(1)R) with high spatiotemporal control is useful to study processes involved in different pathologies related to nociception, metabolic alterations, and neurological disorders. To synthesize new agonist ligands for hCB(1)R, we have designed different classes of photoswitchable molecules based on an indole core. The modifications made to the central core have allowed us to understand the ...

[C-11]UCB-J is a PET radioligand that binds to the presynaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A. Therefore, [C-11]UCB-J PET may serve as an in vivo marker of synaptic integrity. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the quantitative accuracy and the 28-day test-retest repeatability (TRT) of various parametric quantitative methods for dynamic [C-11]UCB-J studies in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and healthy controls (HC). Eight HCs and seven ...

To date, a wide variety of potential PET-apoptosis imaging radiopharmaceuticals targeting apoptosis-induced cell membrane asymmetry and acidification, as well as caspase 3 activation (substrates and inhibitors) have been developed with the purpose of rapidly assessing the response to treatment in cancer patients. Many of these probes were shown to specifically bind to their apoptotic target in vitro and their uptake to be enhanced in the in ...

Mavoglurant binds to same allosteric site on metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) as [C-11]-ABP688, a radioligand. This open-label, single-center pilot study estimates extent of occupancy of mGluR5 receptors following single oral doses of mavoglurant, using [C-11]-ABP688 positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, in six healthy males aged 20-40 years. This study comprised three periods and six subjects were divided into two cohorts. On ...

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders and affects both the young and adult populations. The question we asked for this review was how positron emission tomography (PET) imaging with translocator protein (TSPO) radioligands can help inform the epilepsy clinic and the development of future treatments targeting neuroinflammatory processes. Even though the first TSPO PET scans in epilepsy patients were performed over 20 years ...

[11C]UCB-J is a novel radioligand that binds to synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A (SV2A). The main objective of this study was to determine the 28-day test–retest repeatability (TRT) of quantitative [11C]UCB-J brain positron emission tomography (PET) imaging in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients and healthy controls (HCs). Nine HCs and eight AD patients underwent two 60 min dynamic [11C]UCB-J PET scans with arterial sampling with an interval of ...

Histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) is a multifunctional cytoplasmic enzyme involved in diverse cellular processes such as intracellular transport and protein quality control. Inhibition of HDAC6 can alleviate defects in cell and rodent models of certain diseases, particularly neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. However, while HDAC6 represents a potentially powerful therapeutic target, ...