Serotonin 5HT 2 Receptor Imaging in the Human Brain Using Positron Emission Tomography and a New Radioligand,[ 18 F]Altanserin: Results in Young Normal Controls

Changes in serotonin-2 receptors have been demonstrated in brain autopsy material from patients with various neurodegenerative and affective disorders. It would be desirable to locate a ligand for the study of these receptors in vivo with positron emission tomography (PET). Altanserin is a 4-benzoylpiperidine derivative with a high affinity and selectivity for S₂ receptors in vitro. Dynamic PET studies were carried out in nine normal volunteers with high-specific activity (376–1,680 mCi/μmol) [¹⁸F]altanserin. Arterial blood samples were obtained and the plasma time–activity curves were corrected for the presence of labeled metabolites. Thirty minutes after injection, selective retention of the radioligand was observed in cortical areas, while the cerebellum, caudate, and thalamus had low radioactivity levels. Specific binding reached a plateau between 30 and 65 min postinjection at 1.8% of the injected dose/L of brain and then decreased, indicating the reversibility of the binding. The total/nonspecific binding ratio reached 2.6 for times between 50 and 70 min postinjection. The graphical analysis proposed by Logan et al. allowed us to estimate the binding potential (B_max/K_D). Pretreatment with ketanserin was given to three volunteers and brain activity remained uniformly low. An additional study in one volunteer showed that [¹⁸F]altanserin can be displaced from the receptors by large doses of ketanserin. At the end of the study, unchanged altanserin was 57% of the total plasma activity. These results suggest that [¹⁸F]altanserin is selective for S₂ receptors in vivo as it is in vitro. They indicate that [¹⁸F]altanserin is suitable for imaging and quantifying S₂ receptors with PET in humans.