They say that it's better to see once than hear a hundred times.
When it comes to the image of the brain, this is the true truth.
The creation of such images is the main work of Dr. Sergei Lyashenko (Sergei Liachenko), director of the biovisualization program at the National Center for Toxic Research NCTR FDA.
Working in his small laboratory on the NCTR campus south of Little Rock (Arkansas), Dr. Lyashenko and his team, together with the CDER FDA's Center for Evaluation and Study of Drugs, are studying the effects of various chemicals on the brain of rats. Their task is to prove that magnetic resonance imaging of the brain can be an accurate and informative method for studying the neurotoxic effects of drugs.
"We are trying to demonstrate that visualization can be used to detect physical damage to the brain, known as neurotoxicity. When it comes to neurotoxicity, the more detailed the image we get, the better, "says Dr. Lyashenko.
Here's the case when you can not do without an MRI. Magnetic resonance imaging provides a three-dimensional and very detailed picture of the brain.
How does MRI work and what are its advantages?.
Apparatus for MRI use very powerful magnets, which cause "resonate" water molecules in the cells of the body. The device acts on high frequencies on the cells, these waves travel through the body and are reflected from its structures. The computer processes the acquired information to form a three-dimensional image of the scanning area. MRI is widely used in clinical practice to detect diseases and injuries of internal organs.
Today, most scientists investigate brain damage in laboratory animals using multiple tissue sections obtained after an animal has been opened. But Dr. Lyashenko and his colleague from CDER Dr. Joseph Hanig (Joseph Hanig) are concerned that this method leads to omission of serious moments, since not all of the tissue undergoes analysis. MRI can give a detailed and complete picture of the brain, showing everything, even the smallest pathological changes.
"This method of studying allows you to scan the entire brain and get a 3D image, so we can examine the tissues in different projections, and we need not worry that we missed the potential damage in another part of the brain," says Lyashenko.
The second advantage of MP scanning is that the MRI device can scan the rodent's brain efficiently, safely and repeatedly. The animal can not be put to sleep, and the toxicological experiment can continue after the first study. The doctor says: "It's just a magnetic field, and we use what is called the safest modality. That's why we can scan one animal many times in a row ".
The study of the same animal model, according to Hanig, gives scientists data that are much more accurate than those obtained by killing and opening several animals. In addition, MR scanning of laboratory animals is very similar to a survey of people, so the method "can easily be linked to clinical studies".
The third important advantage of using MRI in neurotoxicological studies is time. MR scanning and image analysis can be completed in a few hours, and traditional histological analysis requires many days, and sometimes weeks. This means an incredible benefit in terms of cost-effectiveness ratio, because weeks of work of scientists are not cheap.
Visualization in the FDA.
MRI is used worldwide for research on live laboratory animals, but the uniqueness of the new NCTR and CDER technology is that scientists have been able to create special MR-biomarkers of neurotoxicity. These are special substances that help to better examine pathological foci in the brain with the help of magnetic resonance.
Biomarkers increase the effectiveness of neurotoxicological studies at times compared to traditional methods.
"When the effectiveness and reliability of working with biomarkers is proven, it will become an important message to the pharmaceutical community that the method has great potential and it is time to introduce it into clinical practice. In our opinion, this MR scan will create opportunities for developing safer drugs. This is the goal of all our work ", - summed up Liashenko.
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