Noninvasive visualization of the activated alphavbeta3 integrin in cancer patients by positron emission tomography and [18F]Galacto-RGD.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The integrin alphavbeta3 plays an important role in angiogenesis and tumor cell metastasis, and is currently being evaluated as a target for new therapeutic approaches. Several techniques are being studied to enable noninvasive determination of alphavbeta3 expression. We developed [(18)F]Galacto-RGD, a (18)F-labeled glycosylated alphavbeta3 antagonist, allowing monitoring of alphavbeta3 expression with positron emission tomography (PET).

Methods and findings

Here we show by quantitative analysis of images resulting from a small-animal PET scanner that uptake of [(18)F]Galacto-RGD in the tumor correlates with alphavbeta3 expression subsequently determined by Western blot analyses. Moreover, using the A431 human squamous cell carcinoma model we demonstrate that this

SUBMITTER: Haubner R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1069665 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature