Imaging the availability of serotonin transporter in rat brain with 123I-ADAM and small-animal SPECT

BACKGROUND: Imaging serotonin transporters during antidepressant treatment in small animals is a useful tool for preclinical study during drug development. In this work, we aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of using 123I-ADAM and small-animal SPECT to monitor serotonin transporter availabilities in rat brains prior to and after administration of a selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor. METHODS: Male Sprague-Dawley rats with and without administration of citalopram (4 mg x kg body weight) were examined in this study. During the process rat brains were scanned using a double-headed microSPECT system equipped with pinhole collimators. SPECT tomographic images and X-ray computed tomography (CT) were acquired after introducing 123I-ADAM via the tail vein. The 123I-ADAM specific binding was assessed by SPECT/CT fused image to draw regions of interest in the midbrain and cerebellum. Ex-vivo autoradiography was carried out as a parallel investigation to validate the SPECT technique. RESULTS: SPECT images displayed specific binding ratio in midbrain to be 0.91+/-0.30 averaged from three rats. Drug occupancies (95.47+/-1.56)% were shown after administration of citalopram in a dosage of 4 mg x kg. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that the serotonin transporter availability during antidepressant treatment in small animals can be assessed semi-quantitatively by using 123I-ADAM and SPECT.