High-field MRS in clinical drug development

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Imaging
• Pharmacology
• Medical Diagnostics

Background:

• Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) identifies biomarkers for hundreds of diseases, crucial for drug discovery.
• Published evidence-based medicine surveys often underestimate MRS's role in drug discovery due to methodological flaws.

Purpose of the Study:

• To highlight the practical applications of MRS in guiding human drug discovery endeavors.
• To explore the influence of 'reverse-translation' in expanding preclinical drug discoveries using in vivo MRS.
• To propose a structured approach for re-evaluating MRS in drug discovery, including EBM acceptance.

Main Methods:

• Review of MRS applications in drug discovery.
• Analysis of the 'reverse-translation' process in preclinical research.
• Development of an eight-criterion framework for evaluating MRS in drug discovery.

Main Results:

• MRS has successfully guided hundreds of drug discovery initiatives.
• The 'reverse-translation' approach enhances preclinical drug discovery from in vivo MRS data.
• A structured framework, including EBM, can facilitate productive exploration of drugs using MRS.

Conclusions:

• MRS-guided drug discovery is set for expansion due to increasing trial costs and the utility of biomarkers.
• Clinical MRS provides novel biomarkers and is increasingly standardized on routine MRI scanners.
• Integrated with new MRI sequences, MRS offers a comprehensive platform for disease and drug outcome measures.