Development of a Specific Tracer for Metabolic Imaging of Alveolar Echinococcosis: a Preclinical Study

Clemence Porot*, Jenny Knapp, Junhua Wang, Stephane Germain, Davide Camporese, Yann Seimbille, Hatem Boulahdour, Dominique A. Vuitton, Bruno Gottstein, Oleg Blagosklonov

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articleAcademicpeer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Positron emission tomography (PET)-computed tomography (CT) using [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) (FDG-PET/CT) is a valuable method for initial staging and follow up of patients with alveolar echinococcosis (AE). However, the cells responsible for FDG uptake have not been clearly identified. The main goal of our study was to evaluate the uptake of PET tracers by the cells involved in the host-parasite reaction around AE lesions as the first step to develop a specific PET tracer that would allow direct assessment of parasite viability in AE.Candidate molecules ([18F]-fluorotyrosine (FET), [18F]-fluorothymidine (FLT), and [18F]-fluorometylcholine (FMC), were compared to FDG by in vitro studies on human leukocytes and parasite vesicles. Our results confirmed that FDG was mainly consumed by immune cells and showed that FLT was the best candidate tracer for parasite metabolism. Indeed, parasite cells exhibited high uptake of FLT.We also performed PET/CT scans in mice infected intraperitoneally with E. multilocularis metacestodes. PET images showed no FDG or FLT uptake in parasitic lesions.This preliminary study assessed the metabolic activity of human leukocytes and AE cells using radiolabeling. Future studies could develop a specific PET tracer for AE lesions to improve lesion detection and echinococcosis treatment in patients. Our results demonstrated that a new animal model is needed for preclinical PET imaging to better mimic human hepatic and/or periparasitic metabolism.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5587-5590
Number of pages4
Journal2014 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Nov 2014
Externally publishedYes
Event36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE-Engineering-in-Medicine-and-Biology-Society (EMBC) - Chicago, Israel
Duration: 26 Aug 201430 Aug 2014

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright: © 2014 IEEE.

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