The extraction of 11C-labeled methanol, ethanol, and isopropanol, as well as 15O-labeled water by the brain during a single capillary transit, was studied in vivo in six adult rhesus monkeys by external detection of the time course of these tracers subsequent to their internal carotid artery injection. The data demonstrate the feasibility of accurately measuring brain permeability of highly diffusible substances by this technique and show that neither water nor the alcohols studied freely equilibrate with brain when the cerebral blood flow exceeds 30 ml/100 g min-1. At a cerebral blood flow of 50 ml/100 g min-1 only about 93% of an injected bolus of labeled water freely exchanges with brain, compared with methanol (93%), ethanol (97%), and isopropanol (99%). The brain capillary permeability-surface area (PS) products computed from these data were 0.023 cm3/s g-1 (water), 0.024 cm3/s g-1 (methanol), 0.030 cm3/s g-1 (ethanol), and 0.062 cm3/s g-1 (isopropanol). This sequence of PS products is consistent with the individual lipid solubilities of the alcohols studied and underscores the unique brain permeability characteristics of lipid-insoluble water.

The radiopharmaceutical glucose--11C was used in vivo measurement of brain-glucose transport kinetics and metabolism in the rhesus monkey. Radiotracer was injected intravenously as a bolus. Radioactivity was continuously recorded from the head and from the arterial blood via an indwelling peripheral artery catheter for a collectionperiod of 2-3 min. To correct the reading obtained from the head for radioactivitycontained in blood, a second intravenous injection of the vascular tracer -15O-labeled carboxyhemoglobin was used. The method was tested in nine phencyclidine-anesthetized monkeys in which cerebral glucose metabolism (CMRGlc) was simultaneously measured by our method and by a standard method emplying the Fick principle. A highlysignificant correlation was found between the two methods of measuring CMRGlc (r =0.929). In addition, our model predicted a ratio of forward-to-reverse glucose flux across the blood-brain barrier (BBR) (1.37 plus or minus 0.23 SD), the brain-to-bloodglucose concentration ratio across the BBB (0.633 plus or minus 0.14), the relative tissue free-glucose space (17 plus or minus 7%), the brain free-glucose concentration (13.6plus or minus 8.5 mg/100 g of tissue), and the brain free-glucose turnover time (2.96 plus or minus 1.98 min). author

The seminal discovery of acyclovir 40 years ago heralded the modern era of truly selective antiviral therapies and this drug remains the therapy of choice for herpes simplex virus infections. Yet by modern standards, its antiviral activity is modest and new drugs against novel molecular targets such as the helicase-primase have the potential to improve clinical outcome, particularly in high-risk patients. A brief synopsis of current therapies for these infections and clinical need is provided to help provide an initial perspective. The function of the helicase-primase complex is then summarized and the development of new inhibitors of the helicase-primase complex, such as pritelivir and amenamevir, is discussed. We review their mechanism of action, propensity for drug resistance, and pharmacokinetic characteristics and discuss their potential to advance current therapeutic options. Strategies that include combinations of these inhibitors with acyclovir are also considered, as they will likely maximize clinical efficacy.

Emission tomography can be used to monitor, in vivo and regionally, the utilization of metabolic substrates labeled with positron-emitting radioisotopes produced by a cyclotron. The concept was validated by measuring brain glucose utilization with carbon--11-labeled glucose in rhesus monkeys.