Serguei Liachenko1,
Jaivijay Ramu1, Merle G. Paule1, Larry Schmued1,
Joseph Hanig2
1Division
of Neurotoxicology, NCTR / FDA, Jefferson, AR, United States; 2CDER/FDA,
White Oak, MD, United States
Assessing neurotoxicity is a very important part of the evaluation of new drug safety and is usually assessed using conventional histology and biochemistry. The current study utilizes non-invasive MRI techniques involving T2 mapping approach to enable the development of the sensitive early biomarkers of neurotoxicity. Acute changes in T2 values consistent with the neurotoxic mechanism of action of prototypic compounds were detected as early as 2 hours after injection of kainic acid. Such methodology has the potential to improve our understanding of brain toxicity and provide promising tools for the development and qualification of new biomarkers of neurotoxicity.
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