Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30189290›Full record

ReviewPharmacology & therapeutics2019

TSPO in diverse CNS pathologies and psychiatric disease: A critical review and a way forward.

Tomás R Guilarte

Open access · greenAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Pharmacology & therapeutics, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 99 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
99citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
11.5field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

99 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 177 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Review
  6. IND-Enabling Preclinical Studies of [Medicinal chemistry research : an international journal for rapid communications on design and mechanisms of action of biologically active agents · 2025
    Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Review
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Role of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Neuropathy.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025
    Review
  15. Preclinical characterization of [Acta pharmacologica Sinica · 2025
    Article
  16. Review
  17. Review
  18. Review
  19. Article
  20. TSPO Radioligands for Neuroinflammation: An Overview.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024
    Review

39 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.

Tomás R GuilarteRobert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, Environmental Health Sciences, Cognitive Neuroscience & Imaging Florida International University, 11200 SW 8(th) St, AHC5-507, Miami, FL 33199, USA. Electronic address: tguilart@fiu.edu.
Florida International University · US

Funding

ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY PRE/POST DOCTORAL RES.TRAININGT32ES007062 · NIEHS · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI Justin Adam Colacino · 1985 to 2026
$10.5M
TSPO and Neuroinflammation in Alzheimer's DiseaseR01ES007062 · NIEHS · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · PI GUILARTE, TOMAS R · 1995 to 2023
$7.3M
NIEHS NIH HHS R01 ES007062NIEHS NIH HHS T32 ES007062
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The use of Translocator Protein 18 kDa (TSPO) as a clinical neuroimaging biomarker of brain injury and neuroinflammation has increased exponentially in the last decade. There has been a furious pace in the development of new radiotracers for TSPO positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and its use has now been extensively described in many neurological and mental disorders. This fast pace of research and the ever-increasing number of new laboratories entering the field often times lack an appreciation of the historical perspective of the field and introduce dogmatic, but unproven facts, related to the underlying neurobiology of the TSPO response to brain injury and neuroinflammation. Paradoxically, while in neurodegenerative disorders and in all types of CNS pathologies brain TSPO levels increase, a new observation in psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia is decreased brain levels of TSPO measured by PET. The neurobiological bases for this new finding is currently not known, but rigorous experimental design using multiple experimental approaches and careful interpretation of results is critically important to provide the methodological and/or biological underpinnings to this new observation. This review provides a perspective of the early history of validating TSPO as a biomarker of brain injury and neuroinflammation and a critical analysis of controversial topics in the literature related to the cellular sources of the TSPO response. The latter is important in order to provide the correct interpretation of PET studies in neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, this review proposes some yet to be explored explanations to new findings in psychiatric disorders and new approaches to quantitatively assess the glial sources of the TSPO response in order to move the field forward.

Indexed as

AnimalsBiomarkersBrainCentral Nervous System DiseasesHumansMental DisordersNeurogliaReceptors, GABAReceptors, GABA-ABiomarkersReceptors, GABAReceptors, GABA-ATSPO protein, humanAstrocytesBiomarkerMicrogliaNeurodegenerative diseaseNeuroinflammationPositron Emission Tomography (PET)SchizophreniaTranslocator protein 18 kDa (TSPO) - peripheral benzodiazepine receptor (PBR)

Identifiers

PMID30189290
PMCPMC6348013
OpenAlexW2890625851

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.