Photo (AIT/J.Zinner): Preclinical Molecular Imaging
The blood-brain barrier is often a major challenge in the treatment of diseases. Senior Scientist Oliver Langer and the AIT Preclinical Molecular Imaging Team, together with the Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot in Orsay (France) and the Medical University of Vienna, have succeeded to find a possible solution to overcome this barrier. The publication has been awarded the title of "Featured Translational Science Article" by the prestigious Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
The blood-brain barrier is an important barrier between the blood and the brain and often prevents drugs from reaching their pharmacological targets in the brain in sufficiently high concentrations. Many drugs, especially modern molecularly targeted cancer therapies (tyrosine kinase inhibitors), are prevented from entering the brain by two transport proteins at the blood-brain barrier called ABCB1 and ABCG2. As a result, these drugs are ineffective to treat brain tumors.
In 2015, the AIT Preclinical Molecular Imaging Group demonstrated that the approved drug erlotinib (Tarceva®) inhibits at high doses ABCB1 and ABCG2, potentially improving the brain distribution of other drugs. The potential clinical applicability of this concept was successfully confirmed in 2017 in collaboration with the Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot in Orsay, France. As a final step, this concept was evaluated in healthy volunteers as part of a long-term collaboration with the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at the Medical University of Vienna.
This publication has been highlighted as "Featured Translational Science Article" in the April 2019 issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, one of the best nuclear medicine journals (impact factor: 7.439): http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/60/4/486
These results highlight that PET imaging is a translational method that is particularly well suited to transfer innovative therapeutic concepts from animals to humans in a short period of time.
This research has received support by the NÖ Forschungs- und Bildungsges.m.b.H. (NFB) and the FWF.
Related Publications:
[1] Traxl, A., T. Wanek, S. Mairinger, J. Stanek, T. Filip, M. Sauberer, M. Muller, C. Kuntner and O. Langer. "Breast Cancer Resistance Protein and P-Glycoprotein Influence in vivo Disposition of 11C-Erlotinib." The Journal of Nuclear Medicine 56, no. 12 (2015): 1930-6.
[1] Tournier, N., S. Goutal, S. Auvity, A. Traxl, S. Mairinger, T. Wanek, O. B. Helal, I. Buvat, M. Soussan, F. Caille and O. Langer. "Strategies to Inhibit Abcb1- and Abcg2-Mediated Efflux Transport of Erlotinib at the Blood-Brain Barrier: A PET Study in Non-Human Primates." The Journal of Nuclear Medicine 58, no. 1 (2017): 117-122.