Recent Advances in Radiotracers for Pet Studies of the Brain

This chapter provides summary of the technology required to apply positron emission tomography (PET). It describes a number of recent developments in radiotracers for probing neurotransmitter properties, protein synthesis, enzyme activity, cerebral malignancy, and drug binding properties. The chapter focuses on the challenges facing the PET field as more institutions acquire the instrumentation to apply this modality in basic and clinical research. The technology required to apply PET to problems in biology and medicine varies, depending on the particular applications and interests of the program. The most common configuration of a cyclotron PET program consists of a cyclotron, a positron emission tomograph, and a radiotracer chemistry laboratory. Radiotracers whose regional distribution reflects glucose metabolism, neurotransmitter activity, and enzyme activity have all required the development of rapid synthetic methods for the radiotracers themselves as well as the characterization of their biochemical behavior in vivo. Quality control is now gaining greater prominence in PET research.