Combatting Second Generation Drug Addiction
Helene Benveniste, Anesthesiology, recently reported an innovative combined use of
PET (positron emission tomography) scanning and high
resolution MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to
non-invasively monitor maternal-fetal drug exchange and
pharmacokinetics, the rate at which a drug is taken up and
distributed among the body's organs. The combination offers
a new technique for assessing damage from prenatal exposure
to drugs of abuse. PET scans generate valuable
pharmacokinetic data but cannot provide sufficiently
detailed pictures of fetal organs, a function easily
fulfilled by MRI. Combining the two imaging modalities made
it possible to monitor pharmacokinetics down to the level
of the placenta and individual regions of the fetal brain.
Another important application could be to monitor fetal
response to therapeutics, a growing need as the use of
fetal surgery in utero becomes increasingly common to
correct congenital malformations. When mothers are treated
for pain as they recuperate from such surgeries, health
professionals depend on the mother transferring the pain
medication to the fetus via the placenta. But we actually
do not know if what we give is sufficient to satisfy the
pain level of the fetus, Prof. Benveniste observed. She was
the lead author on a paper reporting these results in the
Society of Nuclear Medicine’s Journal of Nuclear
Medicine. The research was funded by the Office of
Biological and Environmental Research in the U.S.
Department of Energy’s Office of Science and by the
National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Stony Brook Home | VP for Research | Specialized Research Facilities | Centers for Molecular Medicine | GCRC | NSF MRSEC in Polymers at Engineered Interfaces | NSF MRSEC in Thermal Spray Research | NYS Center for Advanced Technology in Medical Biotechnology | NYS Center for Advanced Technology in Sensor Systems | College of Arts and Sciences | College of Engineering and Applied Sciences | Graduate School | University Hospital and Health Sciences Center | School of Medicine