[Imaging of inflammatory foci with 99m technecium labeled antimicrobial oligopeptide]

A direct method using 99mtechnecium to label the synthetic antimicrobial oligopeptide ubiquicidine with a molecular mass of 1.7 kDa has been developed. The radiochemical purity of the resultant labeled compound was more than 98%. A combination of ubiquicidine and 99mtechnecium showed stability in blood plasma. The biological study indicated that the complex was renally excreted from blood flow rapidly (the half-life is 30 min). It accumulated in the experimental inflammatory focus of laboratory animals, peaking 1-2 hours after intravenous injection when the inflammatory focus/intact tissue ratio amounted up to 2.6-3.4, which could yield satisfactory abscess scintigrams. The findings make it possible to consider ubiquicidine as a promising compound for the design of radiopharmaceutical to image inflammatory foci.