The role of nuclear medicine in inflammatory diseases. Drug targets and clinical applications

The integration of neuro-PET mainly in early phases of CNS drug development is a relatively young option, which has increasingly influenced drug development concepts inside and outside the pharmaceutical industry. Go/No-go decisions of CNS drug development programs and drug dosage and drug regimen can be inferred from functional neuroimaging, which leads to decreases in time and costs. Not only is neuro-PET effectively utilized in early drug development (mainly by direct labeling of the study drug), but also in later clinical study phases (phases 3b/4) as a therapy monitoring or follow-up instrument (mainly by indirect monitoring of the metabolism). In this book chapter, exemplary CNS studies, their benefits for drug development, when using neuro-PET, and their pitfalls are shown.