Preclinical development and characterisation of Tc-NM-01 for SPECT/CT imaging of human PD-L1.

The level of expression of programmed cell death-1 (PD-1)/programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) is a predictive biomarker for cancer immunotherapy, however, its detection remains challenging due to tumour heterogeneity and the influence from the binding of therapeutic agents. We recently developed [Tc]-NM-01 as a companion diagnostic imaging agent for non-invasive molecular imaging of PD-L1 by single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). The aim of the study was to evaluate the [Tc] radiolabelling of GMP graded NM-01 and its pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and toxicology.