To tackle the clinical challenge of noninvasively assessing immunotherapy efficacy in patients, here we used positron emission tomography (PET) with Ga-grazytracer, which targets granzyme B, a crucial effector molecule secreted by activated CD8 T cells. In this phase 1/2 clinical trial (NCT05000372) involving a diverse cohort of 24 patients with solid tumors and lymphomas who received immunotherapies, including immune checkpoint inhibitors (either alone or with chemotherapies) and chimeric antigen receptor-T cell therapy, we examined the in vivo behaviors of Ga-grazytracer. Primary endpoints were safety, biodistribution, granzyme B specificity, and the predictive utility of Ga-grazytracer, while secondary endpoint was the relationship between Ga-grazytracer uptake and tumor immune phenotype.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging
October 2024
Introduction: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) are prevalent respiratory diseases in China and impose significant burdens on the healthcare system. Moreover, the co-occurrence of COPD and OSA exacerbates clinical outcomes significantly. However, comprehensive epidemiological investigations in China remain scarce, and the defining characteristics of the population affected by COPD and OSA, alongside their intrinsic relationship, remain ambiguous.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLymph node metastasis examined by the resected lymph nodes is considered one of the most important prognostic factors for colorectal cancer (CRC). However, it requires careful and comprehensive inspection by expert pathologists. To relieve the pathologists' burden and speed up the diagnostic process, in this paper, we develop a deep learning system with the binary positive/negative labels of the lymph nodes to solve the CRC lymph node classification task.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccurately identifying patients who respond to immunotherapy remains clinically challenging. A noninvasive method that can longitudinally capture information about immune cell function and assist in the early assessment of tumor responses is highly desirable for precision immunotherapy. Here, we show that PET imaging using a granzyme B-targeted radiotracer named 68Ga-grazytracer, could noninvasively and effectively predict tumor responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors and adoptive T cell transfer therapy in multiple tumor models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA novel method for the metal-free synthesis of amides from thioamides based on visible-light photoredox catalysis and in an air atmosphere is reported. Natural pigment chlorophyll is used as a photosensitizer to generate singlet molecular oxygen O, which is involved in the aerobic desulfurization of thioamides. The protocol provides amides in good yields at room temperature under mild conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging
July 2022
Purpose: Hypoxia is a hallmark of solid tumors that is related to radiotherapy resistance. As galectin members, such as galectin-1 and galectin-3, are associated with tumor hypoxia, herein we aimed to investigate whether positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of galectin expression can be employed to effectively pinpoint tumor hypoxia, and to predict radiotherapy resistance.
Methods: We synthesized a galectin-targeting radiotracer, designated Ga-galectracer, by radiolabeling a thiodigalactoside derivative.
Compelling evidence indicates that radiotherapy (RT) has a systemic inhibitory effect on nonirradiated lesions (abscopal effect) in addition to the ablation of irradiated tumors. However, this effect occurs only in rare circumstances in clinical practice, and mechanisms underlying the abscopal effect of RT are neither fully understood nor therapeutically utilized. Here we identified that intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), an inducible glycoprotein of the immunoglobulin superfamily, is up-regulated in nonirradiated tumors responsive to RT.
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