Characterizing Novel Brain Immune Probes for Opioid Use Disorder
Brain immune mechanisms are heavily implicated in opioid use disorder (OUD), a major public health concern. There is a need to develop novel PET radiotracers that target diverse immune mechanisms to improve basic science understanding in the context of OUD. As part of the PET Addiction Centers of Excellence (PACE) project, we are characterizing the imaging properties of novel PET radiotracers that target Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), which are associated with tissue damage, and the Sphingosine 1 Phosphate Receptor 1 (S1PR1), which is associated with regulating responses to brain immune stimuli, and is generally neuroprotective. The goal is to validate the imaging properties and sensitivity to OUD-relevant immune challenges in preclinical models anticipating translation to human use. This project is funded by P30DA046345 (PI: Mach).