LAT1 targeted delivery of methionine based imaging probe derived from M(III) metal ions for early diagnosis of proliferating tumours using molecular imaging modalities.

We investigated the potential of DTPA-bis(Methionine), a target specific amino acid based probe for detection of L-type amino acid transporters (LAT1) known to over express in proliferating tumours using multimodality imaging. The ligand, DTPA-bis(Met) was readily converted to lanthanide complexes and was found capable of targeting cancer cells using multimodality imaging. DTPA-bis(Met) complexes were synthesized and characterized by mass spectroscopy.