[C-11]Deschloroclozapine Is An Improved Pet Radioligand For Quantifying A Human Muscarinic Dreadd Expressed In Monkey Brain

Previous work found that [C-11]deschloroclozapine ([C-11]DCZ) is superior to [C-11]clozapine ([C-11]CLZ) for imaging Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDs). This study used PET to quantitatively and separately measure the signal from transfected receptors, endogenous receptors/targets, and non-displaceable binding in other brain regions to better understand this superiority. A genetically-modified muscarinic type-4 human receptor (hM(4)Di) was injected into the right amygdala of a male rhesus macaque. [C-11]DCZ and [C-11]CLZ PET scans were conducted 2-24 months later. Uptake was quantified relative to the concentration of parent radioligand in arterial plasma at baseline (n = 3 scans/radioligand) and after receptor blockade (n = 3 scans/radioligand). Both radioligands had greater uptake in the transfected region and displaceable uptake in other brain regions. Displaceable uptake was not uniformly distributed, perhaps representing off-target binding to endogenous receptor(s). After correction, [C-11]DCZ signal was 19% of that for [C-11]CLZ, and background uptake was 10% of that for [C-11]CLZ. Despite stronger [C-11]CLZ binding, the signal-to-background ratio for [C-11]DCZ was almost two-fold greater than for [C-11]CLZ. Both radioligands had comparable DREADD selectivity. All reference tissue models underestimated signal-to-background ratio in the transfected region by 40%-50% for both radioligands. Thus, the greater signal-to-background ratio of [C-11]DCZ was due to its lower background uptake.