In vivo magnetic resonance methods in pharmaceutical research: current status and perspectives

In the last decade, in vivo MR methods have become established tools in the drug discovery and development process. In this review, several successful and potential applications of MRI and MRS in stroke, rheumatoid and osteo- arthritis, oncology and cardiovascular disorders are dealt with in detail. The versatility of the MR approach, allowing the study of various pathophys iological aspects in these disorders, is emphasized. New indication areas, for the characterization of which MR methods have hardly been used up to no w, such as respiratory, gastro-intestinal and skin diseases, are outlined i n a subsequent section. A strength of MRI, being a non-invasive imaging mod ality, is the ability to provide functional, i.e. physiological, readouts. Functional MRI examples discussed are the analysis of heart wall motion, pe rfusion MRT, tracer uptake and clearance studies, and neuronal activation s tudies. Functional information may also be derived from experiments using t arget-specific contrast agents, which will become important tools in future MRI applications. Finally the role of MRI and MRS for characterization of transgenic and knock-out animals, which have become a key technology in mod em pharmaceutical research, is discussed. The advantages of MRT. and MRS ar e versatility, allowing a comprehensive characterization of a diseased stat e and of the drug intervention, and non-invasiveness, which is of relevance from a statistical, economical and animal welfare point of view. Successfu l applications in drug discovery exploit one or several of these aspects. I n addition, the link between preclinical and clinical studies makes in vivo MR methods highly attractive methods for pharmaceutical research. Copyrigh t (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.