Potential of Molecular Imaging to Advance Molecular Medicine

Pradeep K. Garg

Center for Molecular Imaging and Therapy,1505 Kings Highway, Shreveport, LA 71103, USAUnited States

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17140/csmmoj-3-e004 · Published 2017-01-17 · Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 · © 2017 The Author(s)

Also available as PDF (figures and tables appear in the PDF).

CANCER STUDIES AND MOLECULAR MEDICINE ISSN 2377-1518 http://dx.doi.org/10.17140/CSMMOJ-3-e004 Open Journal Editorial Potential of Molecular Imaging to * *Corresponding author Advance Molecular Medicine Pradeep K. Garg, PhD Executive Director Center for Molecular Imaging and Therapy * Pradeep K. Garg, PhD 1505 Kings Highway Shreveport, LA 71103, USA E-mail: pgarg@biomed.org Center for Molecular Imaging and Therapy,1505 Kings Highway, Shreveport, LA 71103, USA Volume 3 : Issue 1 Article Ref. #: 1000CSMMOJ3e004 Molecular imaging is a technology that allows for non-invasive interrogation of physiological and biochemical processes in the body. Over the years, the use of Molecular Imaging is on Article History the rise, especially towards diagnosing cancer and monitoring treatment. Molecular Imaging th has a significant role to play at preclinical and translational stages in the field of Molecular Received: January 6 , 2017 th Medicine.

Molecular Imaging tools include Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Magnetic Accepted: January 11 , 2017 th Resonance spectroscopy (MRS), Computed Tomography (CT), Positron Emission Tomogra- Published: January 11 , 2017 phy (PET), Ultrasound (US), and Optical Imaging among many more. While CT and MRI remains as first-line tools for diagnosing ailments by the clinicians, pre-clinical and clinical Citation use of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is steadily rising. Newer PET probes are being Garg PK. Potential of molecu- developed and being evaluated for their effectiveness in patient care and disease management. lar imaging to advance molecu- lar medicine. Cancer Stud Mol While this technology has tremendously benefitted the pre-clinical research, it has also become Med Open J. 2017; 3(1): e3-e4. one of the indispensable tools in the clinic. In addition, now PET is proven to be quite helpful in doi: 10.17140/CSMMOJ-3-e004 expediting the drug development and discovery efforts. Over the last two decade, a significant progress is made towards expanding the role of Molecular Imaging. It plays significant role in Oncology, Neurology, ageing, drug abuse, and cardiac applications. With increased acceptance of this modality in the clinics around the world, there is a growing interest in utilizing PET to target biological systems and to assess the outcome of certain treatments in patients. One of the early successes in PET application came from the development of F-18 la- beled fluorodeoxyglucose (F-18 FDG), a sugar molecule that was labeled with a short half-life PET radionuclide Fluorine-18. This molecule phosphorylates and subsequently traps inside the cells and thus provides a measure of glucose utilization in a given tissue. Since this principle applies to many cellular processes, the role of FDG continued to grow beyond its original oncology applications. Encouraged from initial successes with F-18 FDG, newer PET probes were developed with primary focus to target a wide array of biochemical and physiological pro- cesses. Some of the noteworthy focus areas include targeting cellular apoptosis, angiogenesis, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, moment disorders, various receptors in the brain, and numerous other biochemical pathways.

Some of the extensively explored PET probes include F-18 Fluorothymidine (F-18 FLT), F-18 Fluoromisonidazole (F-18 MISO), F-18 Amyvid (F-18 AV-45), F-18 FallyPride, C-11 Nicotine, C-11 Raclopride, O-15 Water and scores of other probes. For example, F-18 FLT was developed as a thymidine analogue to provide a measure of thymidine uptake in tis- sues. This probe has been proven as a useful biomarker for assessing cell proliferation. Simi- larly, F-18 F-MISO was developed to assess tissue oxygenation status and has found its place in preclinical and clinical studies as tissue hypoxia marker. O-15 water has been applied to gather information on tissue blood flow. Dopaminergic systems are targeted using probes such Copyright as F-18 FallyPride and C-11 Raclopride. Several F-18 fluorobenzamides have been developed ©2017 Garg PK. This is an open recently to target melanoma. Role of F-18 labeled testosterone derivatives is being explored to access article distributed under the selectively target androgen receptors. These probes have shown clinical potential to target pros- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), tate cancer. Similarly radio-labeled PSMA derivatives also show significant clinical potential to which permits unrestricted use, dis- target prostate cancer.

tribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work While this imaging modality is perceived as expensive and at times technically chal- is properly cited.

CANCER STUDIES AND MOLECULAR MEDICINE ISSN 2377-1518 http://dx.doi.org/10.17140/CSMMOJ-3-e004 Open Journal lenging, the benefit from adopting such tools could outweigh challenges. With the backing from a large supporting literature on the usefulness of Molecular Imaging, it is prudent to engage this technology into more basic science research and in to interrogate molecular medicine paradigm. It is my hope that researchers would more aggressively incorporate Molecular Imaging techniques in their Molecular Medicine research and applications.