412회 In vivo molecular imaging for diseases

412회 (2008. 3. 20.)

연사 : 유 은 경 박사 , 한국기초과학지원연구원 춘천센터 선임연구원

제목 : In vivo molecular imaging for diseases

Abstract

Molecular imaging refers to the characterization and measurement of biological processes at the cellular and/or molecular level. The major advantages of radionuclide-based molecular imaging are that they are very sensitive, quantitative, and there is no tissue penetration limit. The studies have developed for noninvasive methods to visualize and quantify brain disease and tumor using PET. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is pathologically characterized by the accumulation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain, and thus, the in vivo imaging of plaques and tangles would be beneficial for the early diagnosis of AD. It has been suggested that curcumin may be responsible for low age-adjusted prevalence of AD in India. In the present study, eight novel derivatives of curcumin were synthesized and their binding affinities for β-amyloid (Aβ) aggregates were measured. Of these ligands, fluoropropyl-substituted curcumin showed the highest binding affinity and

evaluated as a potential probe for plaque Aβ-imaging. It is well documented that most solid tumors are angiogenesis dependent and that integrin is a key player. In particular, integrin αvβ3 was found to be necessary for the formation, survival, and maturation of new blood vessels. Synthetic peptides containing the arginine-glycine-aspartate (RGD) sequence can bind specifically to integrin αvβ3. We synthesized and evaluated 18F-FPRGD2 for tumor imaging of integrin αvβ3 expression using microPET. The binding calculated from kinetic modeling appears to be an excellent radiotracer of tumor integrin density.