99m-Tc-labeled interleukin-8 for imaging of infection and inflammation

H. Rennen

2004

Abstract

Nuclear medicine offers ideal techniques to visualize inflammatory processes using noninvasive methods of whole-body scanning, enabling the determination of both the localization and the extent of the inflammatory process throughout the body. Although autologous leukocytes, labeled with 111In or 99mTc, is still considered the Ã¢â‚¬Ëœgold standardÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ nuclear medicine technique to image infection and inflammation, there is a great need for a less cumbersome and less hazardous approach. Over the last few decades a series of radiopharmaceuticals to investigate infectious and non-microbial inflammatory disorders has been proposed. Radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies and antibody-fragments, radiolabeled chemotactic peptides and cytokines, and radiolabeled antibiotics are new approaches for this application. The studies presented in this thesis focus on the labeling of IL-8 with 99mTc and the suitability of 99mTc-labeled IL-8 to image infection and inflammation in various animal models.