Clinical trials

The goal of this clinical trial is to determine whether a sigma-1 receptor PET/MRI scan can help identify the specific nerves responsible for chronic pain. Researchers will use an investigational imaging agent called \[18F\]FTC-146 to look for signs of pain generating nerve irritation or injury that may not be visible on convention imaging tests. Participants whose pain-generating nerve can be identified may undergo a diagnostic nerve block and, if successful, a standard clinical procedure called cryoneurolysis will be used to temporarily interrupt pain signals.

The purpose of this study is to utilize the radioactive positron emission tomography (PET) tracer \[11C\]UCB-J to test the neural synaptic pruning hypothesis of schizophrenia. This imaging method allows for the quantification of synaptic density in the living human brain and has the unprecedented ability to directly examine the synaptic pathology underlying neuropsychiatric disease. The neural synaptic pruning hypothesis posits that a key pathogenic process of schizophrenia is the over-exuberant elimination of neural synapses during development. The confirmation of reduced synaptic density in schizophrenia as evidenced by \[11C\]UCB-J has the potential to lead to a number of ground-breaking clinical innovations, such as laboratory-based diagnostics and prognostics, and novel, disease-modifying treatments.