Pharmacological MRI responses of raclopride in rats: The relationship with D2 receptor occupancy and cataleptic behavior

Abstract

The pharmacological action of the central nervous system (CNS) drugs comprise phases of exposure to plasma, central distribution, in vivo target engagement, mechanism-based brain activity, and drug efficacy. CNS drug development has to overcome a number of challenging barriers in these phases because the evaluation of the efficacy in preclinical animal models cannot be readily translated to complex human neuropsychiatric disorders for prediction of clinical efficacy (