Evaluation of Ga-DOTA-Ubiquicidin (29-41) for imaging (Staph A) infection and turpentine-induced inflammation in a preclinical setting.

Synthetic antimicrobial peptide fragment, Tc-Ubiquicidin 29-41, is shown to be sensitive and also specific for imaging bacterial infections. We undertook this study to explore the advantage of using a positron emission agent, Ga-DOTA-Ubiquicidin 29-41 (Ga-DOTA-UBI), for detecting Staph-A infection in an animal model, and also evaluated its ability to distinguish a turpentine-induced sterile inflammation in an animal model. Pure Ga-68 was freshly eluted from a Ge/Ga generator (IGG-100).

(68)Ga-radiopharmaceuticals for PET imaging of infection and inflammation.

Infection imaging has been challenging over the past four decades, which provided an excellent playing field for researchers working in this area, and till date the quest continues to find an ideal imaging agent. Labelled leukocytes were first developed in the 1970s for imaging infection lesions such as osteomyelitis, cellulitis, diabetic foot, Crohn's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, fever of unknown origin, etc. Subsequently labelled antibiotics such as (99m)Tc-labelled ciprofloxacin have emerged for directly identifying live bacterial infections.

(68)Ga-Citrate-PET for diagnostic imaging of infection in rats and for intra-abdominal infection in a patient.

Objectives: 67Ga-Citrate has been extensively used for infection and inflammation imaging for the past four decades but has limitations. In the present study, we explored the ability of 68Ga-Citrate to detect Staphylococcus aureus (Staph A) infection in rats and further studied its ability to localize intra-abdominal infection in a patient.

Methods: An infection was induced in male Wistar rats by injecting Staph A in the right thigh muscle.

Potential use of 68Ga-apo-transferrin as a PET imaging agent for detecting Staphylococcus aureus infection.

Introduction: (67)Ga citrate has been extensively used to detect infection and inflammation since 1971. However, its clinical utility is compromised due to several limitations. The present project explored whether (68)Ga-apo-transferrin ((68)Ga-TF), when prepared in vitro, is a useful agent for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of bacterial infection.