Imaging of Early Tumor Response with MILabs’ SPECT

Imaging of Early Tumor Response with MILabs’ SPECT

In this featured scientific publication, the authors illustrate that combining low-dose, high-resolution SPECT imaging with a specific tracer for cell death can provide a detailed readout of the cellular response to novel therapies and assist in the design of individualized cancer therapies.

By assessing treatment-induced changes in small animal tumors with 99mTc-duramycin SPECT and 18F-FDG PET imaging, the authors demonstrated that 99mTc-duramycin specifically accumulates in apoptotic tumors in which 18F-FDG was not able to differentiate responding from non-responding tumors early after treatment. 99mTc-duramycin holds therefore promise as a noninvasive imaging radiotracer for early treatment evaluation in the clinic.

Summary

MILabs’ high-resolution VECTor/CT system is used to:

Produce high-quality, statistically-robust mouse images at sub-mm resolutions.
Conduct biodistribution studies to demonstrate that 99mTc-duramycin specifically accumulates in apoptotic tumors in which 18F-FDG was not able to differentiate responding from non-responding tumors early after treatment.
Assess in vivo uptake quantitation and good correlation with ex vivoquantitation methods.
Demonstrate that the administration of 99mTc-duramycin is safe from a dosimetry perspective and compatible with SPECT imaging in humans.
Show fast blood and renal clearance and low accumulation in non-targeted organs.
Illustrate the potential of using the Concurrent PET/SPECT/CT feature of VECTor to eventually assess in a single imaging session, the uptake of co-injected 99mTc-duramicin and 18F-FDG tracers in tumors.

Related Publications

F. Elvas et al., Characterization of 99mTc-Duramycin as a SPECT Imaging Agent for Early Assessment of Tumor Apoptosis, Mol Imaging Biol. 2015; 17(6): 838–847.
F. Elvas et al., Early Prediction of Tumor Response to Treatment: Preclinical Validation of 99mTc-Duramycin, J Nucl Med 2016; 57:805–811
Molecular Targeting Technologies, Inc. (MTTI), Duramycin is a natural antibiotic with 19-amino acids and recognizes apoptotic and necrotic cells by binding to phosphatidyethanolamine (PE) with high affinity.
https://www.mtarget.com/mm5/pdfs/pipeline/Duramycin%20-%20Web%202012%2010%2012.pdf.