A new cocaine derivative for imaging the dopamine transporter has been deve
loped. Measurements of radioligand binding of C-11-(+)-McN-5652 in vivo wit
h PET suggests that ecstasy interacts directly with the serotonin reuptake
sites and that a single oral dose of ecstasy (1.5 mg/kg) does not cause any
changes in the serotonin transporter density in the human brain. Finally,
a number of epibatidine derivatives have been developed as ligands to study
the central nAChRs in vivo, however, toxicity studies prevented further cl
inical use.