title: Understanding the pharmacology of stroke and multiple sclerosis through imaging.
abstract: Stroke and multiple sclerosis (MS) illustrate how clinical imaging can facilitate early phase drug development and most effective medicine use in the clinic. Imaging has enhanced understanding of the dynamics of evolution of disease pathophysiology, better defining treatment targets. Imaging measures can enable stratification of patients for clinical trials and for most cost-effective use in the clinic. In MS, imaging has allowed smaller Phase II clinical trials and contributed to medicine differentiation. It also has led to consideration of suppression of inflammation and neurodegeneration as meaningfully distinct pharmacodynamic concepts. Similar imaging measures can be used in preclinical and clinical studies. Testing translational pharmacological hypotheses using clinical imaging more explicitly could improve the success of the next generation of stroke therapeutics.
authors.affiliation: Division of Brain Sciences, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, UK; Neurosciences Therapeutic Area Unit, GlaxoSmithKline Research and Development, Brentford, UK. Electronic address: p.matthews@imperial.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Paul M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Matthews
authors.affiliation: Division of Brain Sciences, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, UK.
authors.forename: Olivia C
authors.initials: OC
authors.lastname: Geraghty
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D015195:Drug Design; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018579:Patient Selection; D020521:Stroke / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology*