Infection Imaging Using 99m tc Radiolabled Peptides

As neutrophils are the first type of leukocyte to localize to a site of infection, small syntheticpeptides that bind with high affinity to cell-surface receptors that mediate chemotaxis of neutrophilsprovide a rational basis for the development of an infection specific radiopharmaceutical. The preliminarydata indicate that this approach is viable. The investigator proposes to build on the initial work bysynthesizing new Tc-99m labeled peptides with improved infection-localizing and pharmacokineticcharacteristics and to evaluate them in vitro and in vivo in an animal model of infection. The bestperforming peptide that meets appropriate design criteria will be selected for clinical testing.