Progress in pet imaging of the norepinephrine transporter system

Abstract

The norepinephrine transporter (NET) has long been recognized to play a role in various neurological and psychiatric disorders, e.g., ADHD, substance abuse, depression, alcoholism, obesity, addiction, and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. However, many of the important findings resulting from studies in vitro using postmortem tissues have never been verified via in vivo methods due to the lack of suitable radioligands, preventing the brain imaging of NET in living systems. We have identified the superiority of (S, S)-[11C]MRB and the suitability of the MRB analogs as potential NET ligands for PET translational studies from preclinical investigation in animals to clinical research in humans. In this review article, progress in these translational research studies will be discussed, including the role of NET in ADHD, substance abuse, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), alcohol dependence, obesity, aging, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease.