Along with clinical studies using various drugs with anticholinergic activity, these models have contributed to a "cholinergic deficiency hypothesis" of delirium.Profound systemic inflammation occurring during sepsis is also known to cause delirium (often termed sepsis-associated encephalopathy). Animal models used to study the interactions between prior degenerative disease and overlying systemic inflammation have shown that even mild systemic inflammation causes acute and transient deficits in working memory among diseased animals. Prior dementia or age-associated cognitive impairment is the primary predisposing factor for clinical delirium and "prior pathology" as defined by these new animal models may consist of synaptic loss, abnormal network connectivity, and "primed microglia" brain macrophages stimulated by prior neurodegenerative disease and aging to amplify subsequent inflammatory responses in the central nervous system (CNS). Cerebrospinal fluid
Studies of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in delirium are difficult to perform. Apart from the general difficulty of recruiting participants who are often unable to give consent, the inherently invasive nature of CSF sampling makes such research particularly challenging. However, a few studies have exploited the opportunity to sample CSF from persons undergoing spinal anesthesia for elective or emergency surgery.A 2018 systematic review showed that, broadly, delirium may be associated with neurotransmitter imbalance (namely serotonin and dopamine signaling), reversible fall in somatostatin, and increased cortisol. The leading "neuroinflammatory hypothesis" (where neurodegenerative disease and aging leads the brain to respond to peripheral inflammation with an exaggerated CNS inflammatory response) has been described, but current evidence is still conflicting and fails to concretely support this hypothesis.
Lutetium (177Lu) oxodotreotide (INN) or 177Lu DOTA-TATE, trade name Lutathera, is a chelated complex of a radioisotope of the element lutetium with DOTA-TATE, used in peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT). Specifically, it is used in the treatment of cancers which express somatostatin receptors.Alternatives to 177Lu-DOTATE include yttrium-90 DOTATATE or DOTATOC. The longer range of the beta particles emitted by 90Y, which deliver the therapeutic effect, may make it more suitable for large tumors with 177Lu reserved for smaller volumesThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers 177Lu dotatate to be a first-in-class medication. Clinical trials and drug approval
The European Commission approved lutetium (177Lu) oxodotreotide (trade name Lutathera) "for the treatment of unresectable or metastatic, progressive, well differentiated (G1 and G2), somatostatin receptor positive gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (GEP-NETs) in adults" in September 2017.177Lu DOTA-TATE was approved in the United States for the treatment of SSTR positive gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs), including foregut, midgut and hindgut neuroendocrine tumors in adults, in January 2018. This was the first time a radiopharmaceutical had been approved for the treatment of GEP-NETs in the United States.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved 177Lu dotatate based primarily on evidence from one clinical trial, NETTER-1 of 229 participants with somatostatin-receptor positive midgut GEP-NETs. Enrolled participants had tumors which could not be surgically removed and were worsening while receiving treatment with octreotide.Participants were randomly assigned to receive either 177Lu dotatate with long-acting octreotide or long-acting octreotide, at a higher dose, alone.