Development of specific radiopharmaceuticals for infection imaging by targeting infectious micro-organisms

Infectious diseases remain a major health problem and cause of death worldwide. A variety of radiopharmaceuticals are used for the imaging of infections and inflammation in the practice of nuclear medicine. Long-term clinical use has shown that the majority of radiolabeled probes cannot distinguish between inflammation and infection. Gallium-67-citrate binds to bacteria, but also to proteins accumulating at both sterile inflammation and bacterial infection sites. Other agents are used to interact with receptors or domains on circulating and infiltrating leukocytes or to label them directly. However, these probes cannot distinguish between infection and inflammation because they are not specific to infectious micro-organisms. This review examines the recent developments and applications of radiolabeled specific agents, such as antiviral drugs, antifungal, antibiotics and antimicrobial peptides, to visualize infectious foci by targeting viruses, fungi or bacteria.