A Phase 1 interventional study of 11C-MC1 and 11C-PS13 in Parkinson's Disease, Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease, sponsored by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 99 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-02.
Sponsored by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) · Phase 1, Interventional, and Diagnostic
Background:
About 5 million adults in the U.S. have Alzheimer s disease or another adult-onset neurodegenerative disorder. Many studies have found that inflammation in the brain contributes to these diseases. Researchers want to find a better way to measure this inflammation.
Objective:
To learn whether COX-1 and/or COX-2 is elevated in the brains of individuals with neurodegenerative brain disease compared to healthy volunteers.
Eligibility:
Adults age 18 years and older in good general health who have an adult-onset neurodegenerative dementia, such as AD, FTD, corticobasal syndrome, Huntington s disease, or MCI, ALS and healthy adult volunteers enrolled in protocols 01-M-0254 or 17-M-0181.
Design:
Participants will be screened with medical history, physical exam with vital signs, and lab tests. They will have a neuropsychological testing. Their heart function will be measured.
Participants will have a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. The MRI scanner is a metal tube surrounded by a strong magnetic field. Participants will lie on a table that slides in and out of the tube. The machine makes noise. Participants will get earplugs.
Participants will have 2 PET scans. They will be injected with the study drugs through an intravenous catheter placed in an arm vein. The PET scanner is shaped like a doughnut. Participants will lie on a bed that slides in and out of the scanner. A plastic mask will be molded to their head to keep them from moving. A thin plastic tube will be put into an artery at the wrist or elbow crease area. This will be used to draw blood during the scan.
Participants will have 2-5 study visits. Participation lasts 1 week to 4 months, depending on scheduling.
Study Description:
This pilot/exploratory study will examine whether cyclooxygenase 1 (COX-1) and COX-2 are elevated in the brain of individuals with neurodegenerative brain disease compared to healthy volunteers.
Objectives:
Primary Objective: To determine whether COX-1 and/or COX-2 is elevated in the brains of individuals with neurodegenerative brain disease compared to healthy volunteers.
Secondary Objective:
1) To determine retest variability and reliability for each radioligand. 2) To evaluate the specific binding of [11C]PS13 to COX-1 in healthy subjects through blocking study using Ketoprofen, a COX-1 inhibitor
Endpoints:
Primary Endpoint: Measurement of COX-1 and COX-2 density in brain after PET scans with [11C]PS13 and [11C]MC1, respectively.
Secondary endpoint: 1) To measure whole-brain distribution volume (VT) of COX-1 and COX-2 in a retest setting; 2) To correlate VT with the presence of amyloid in Alzheimer s disease (AD) patients, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients and healthy volunteers (HV); 3) To calculate the specific binding of [11C]PS13 with a Lassen plot
4,573 studies on the registry are indexed under Parkinson Disease; 1,086 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 184 is above the median of 40 across 3,353 interventional studies indexed under Parkinson Disease.
Browse Parkinson Disease studies →National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is the lead sponsor of 367 studies on the registry; 45 are open to participants now.
Of its 25 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 24 (96%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Patients: In order to be eligible to participate in this study, patients must meet all of the following criteria:
Healthy volunteers: In order to be eligible to participate in this study, healthy volunteer subjects must meet all of the following criteria:
EXCLUSION CRITERIA:
Both patients and healthy volunteers who meet any of the following criteria will be excluded from participation in this study:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken with stickers on the chest, arms and legs. It takes a few minutes and does not hurt.
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Childbearing potential
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Contraception
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Clinically significant
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ECG (electrocardiogram)
A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken with stickers on the chest, arms and legs. It takes a few minutes and does not hurt.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Corticosteroids (steroids)
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Immunosuppression
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Contraindication
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hypersensitivity
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
HIV
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
All subjects receive the same tests
Drug: 11C-MC1 · Drug: 11C-PS13 · Drug: 18f-florbetaben
Injected IV followed by PET scanning
Injected IV followed by PET scanning
Injected IV followed by PET scanning
Measure the concentration of radioligands
Density of COX-1 and COX-2 in brain
Time frame: 1-2 days
Measure the retest variability and reliability of the radioligans
Density of COX-1 and COX-2 in brain
Time frame: 1-2 days
Plan to share: Yes — results will be shared
Supporting information: Study protocol
Time frame: 18 months after closure of protocol to Clincialtrials.gov
Access criteria: BTRIS
Started Aug 2021 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Apr 2029, 91 months after the start.
Of 77 non-industry phase 1 interventional studies under Parkinson Disease, half reached primary completion within 37 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 20 and three quarters within 68. This study's planned 91 months is above that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 204 studies reached it within 19 months; a quarter within 5 and three quarters within 40.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Studies of the drug tested here: 11C-PS13
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) →