NEUROTRANSMITTER-BASED BRAIN MAPPING METHOD AND USE OF BRAIN MAP

摘要

An embodiment pertains to a method for evaluating efficacy of a drug which increases or decreases the secretion of a particular neurotransmitter, by measuring a concentration change of the particular neurotransmitter in a specific intracerebral site with reference to a brain map, the method comprising the steps of: selecting as a microdialysis target region in the brain map a first site of an animal, which corresponds to a site that the brain map represents as being the highest in the concentration of a first neurotransmitter of which the secretion is increased or decreased by the drug; and injecting the drug to the animal and monitoring a concentration change of the first neurotransmitter in the first site between pre- and post-injection of the drug. The brain map is constructed by acquiring a concentration distribution of 11 or more multiple neurotransmitters including serotonin, dopamine, GABA, glutamate, and metabolites thereof, obtained by mass analysis of samples acquired from multiple sites in the human brain -hereinafter referred to as first concentration distribution- and a concentration distribution of 11 or more multiple neurotransmitters including serotonin, dopamine, GABA, glutamate, and metabolites thereof, obtained by mass analysis of samples acquired from multiple sites in a monkey brain -hereinafter referred to as second concentration distribution-, and utilizing first correlation including at least 11 correlation data resulting from matching the multiple sites of the human brain to the multiple sites of the monkey brain on the basis of similarity in the concentration distribution of the individual neurotransmitters between the first concentration distribution acquired and the second concentration distribution acquired, and the second concentration distribution, wherein the first site corresponds to a second site in the second concentration distribution when the first neurotransmitter is the most abundant at the second site in the first concentration distribution.