Neuroimaging Biomarkers for Early Drug Development in Schizophrenia

Overview

Journal Biol Psychiatry

Publisher Elsevier

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2013 Oct 8

PMID 24094513

Citations 33

Authors

Jason R Tregellas

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Given the relative inability of currently available antipsychotic treatments to adequately provide sustained recovery and improve quality of life for patients with schizophrenia, new treatment strategies are urgently needed. One way to improve the therapeutic development process may be an increased use of biomarkers in early clinical trials. Reliable biomarkers that reflect aspects of disease pathophysiology can be used to determine if potential treatment strategies are engaging their desired biological targets. This review evaluates three potential neuroimaging biomarkers: hippocampal hyperactivity, gamma-band deficits, and default network abnormalities. These deficits have been widely replicated in the illness, correlate with measures of positive symptoms, are consistent with models of disease pathology, and have shown initial promise as biomarkers of biological response in early studies of potential treatment strategies. Two key features of these deficits, and a guiding rationale for the focus of this review, are that the deficits are not dependent upon patients' performance of specific cognitive tasks and they have analogues in animal models of schizophrenia, greatly increasing their appeal for use as biomarkers. Using neuroimaging biomarkers such as those proposed here to establish early in the therapeutic development process if treatment strategies are having their intended biological effect in humans may facilitate development of new treatments for schizophrenia.

Citing Articles

Functional Connectivity Biomarkers in Schizophrenia.

Howell A, Anticevic A Adv Neurobiol. 2024; 40:237-283.

PMID: 39562448 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-69491-2_10.

Smaller anterior hippocampal subfields in the early stage of psychosis.

McHugo M, Roeske M, Vandekar S, Armstrong K, Avery S, Heckers S Transl Psychiatry. 2024; 14(1):69.

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Non-invasive temporal interference electrical stimulation of the human hippocampus.

Violante I, Alania K, Cassara A, Neufeld E, Acerbo E, Carron R Nat Neurosci. 2023; 26(11):1994-2004.

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Modulation of hippocampal activity in schizophrenia with levetiracetam: a randomized, double-blind, cross-over, placebo-controlled trial.

Roeske M, McHugo M, Rogers B, Armstrong K, Avery S, Donahue M Neuropsychopharmacology. 2023; 49(4):681-689.

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Animal Model Reveals Mechanism of Hippocampal Hyperactivity in Psychosis.

Heckers S, Konradi C Schizophr Bull. 2023; 49(3):546-548.

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