Publications by authors named "Marycel F de Barboza"

Background: Antimicrobial peptides have been radiolabeled and investigated as molecular diagnostic probes due to their propensity to accumulate in infectious sites rather than aseptic inflammatory lesions. LyeTx I is a cationic peptide from the venom of Lycosa erythrognatha, exhibiting significant antimicrobial activity. LyeTx I mn∆K is a shortened derivative of LyeTx I, with an optimized balance between antimicrobial and hemolytic activities.

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Article Synopsis
  • Breast cancer is a major public health concern, and recent research has highlighted the role of specific bioactive peptides from laminin-111 in tumor development.
  • This study focuses on three peptides (IKVAV, YIGSR, KAFDITYVRLKF) synthesized and radiolabeled for use as targeting agents in breast cancer.
  • Two of the peptides (YIKVAV and YIGSR) showed good stability and tumor-targeting ability in experiments, making them promising candidates for future breast cancer treatments, while KAFDITYVRLKF was excluded due to poor performance.
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Human bacterial infections significantly contribute to the increase in healthcare-related burdens. This scenario drives the study of novel techniques for the early and precise diagnosis of infectious processes. Some alternatives include Nuclear Medicine- and Molecular Imaging-based strategies.

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The expression of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is upregulated in prostate cancer (PCa) cells and PSMA-ligands have been radiolabeled and used as radiopharmaceuticals for targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) or positron emission tomography (PET) molecular imaging, and radioguided surgery in PCa patients. Herein, we aimed at radiolabeling the PSMA-I&S cold kit with Tc, resulting in a radiopharmaceutical with high radiochemical yield (RCY) and stability for SPECT imaging and radioguided surgery in PCa malignancies. Various pre-clinical assays were conducted to evaluate the [Tc]Tc-PSMA-I&S obtained by the cold kit.

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This pilot study aimed to confirm the presence of infectious agents in infection foci using PET/CT imaging with 68 Ga-DOTA-UBI (29-41) in 7 patients with chronic osteomyelitis and with indications for surgical cleaning at the site of the infection focus. The whole-body PET/CT was performed on Biograph mCT 40 PET/CT scanner (Siemens Healthineers); the image began 45-60 minutes postinjection of the radiotracer (148-260 MBq). This study demonstrated that, in 6 patients in whom the PET/CT was classified as positive for identified infectious foci, confirmed by culture of the secretion sample collected during surgery, only 1 patient in antibiotic therapy was negative.

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Radiolabeled peptides with high specificity for overexpressed receptors in tumor cells hold great promise for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. In this work, we aimed at comparing the radiolabeling efficiency and biological properties of two different RGD analogs: GRGDYV and GRGDHV, labeled with iodine-131 (I) and technetium-99m-tricarbonyl complex [Tc][Tc(CO)]. Additionally, we evaluated their interaction with the αβ integrin molecule, overexpressed in a wide variety of tumors, including glioblastoma.

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Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is a glycoprotein present in the prostate, that is overexpressed in prostate cancer (PCa). Recently, PSMA-directed radiopharmaceuticals have been developed, allowing the pinpointing of tumors with the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) or Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) imaging techniques. The aim of the present work was to standardize and validate an automatic synthesis module-based radiolabeling protocol for [Ga]Ga-PSMA-11, as well as to produce a radiopharmaceutical for PET imaging of PCa malignancies.

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Background: The positron emission tomography (PET) ligand Ga-Glu-urea-Lys(Ahx)-HBED-CC (Ga-PSMA-11) targets the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), upregulated in prostate cancer cells. Although Ga-PSMA-11 PET is widely used in research and clinical practice, full kinetic modeling has not yet been reported nor have simplified methods for quantification been validated. The aims of our study were to quantify Ga-PSMA-11 uptake in primary prostate cancer patients using compartmental modeling with arterial blood sampling and to validate the use of standardized uptake values (SUV) and image-derived blood for quantification.

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This in vitro study aimed to find the best method of granulocyte isolation for subsequentlabeling with multimodal nanoparticles (magnetic and fluorescent properties) to enable detectionby optical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques. The granulocytes were obtained fromvenous blood samples from 12 healthy volunteers. To achieve high purity and yield, four differentmethods of granulocyte isolation were evaluated.

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