New targets of molecular imaging in atherosclerosis: prehension of current status

Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which immune mechanisms interact with diverse metabolic risk factors to initiate, propagate and activate lesions in the arterial wall. This process starts and evolves in response to cholesterol accumulation in arterial intima of the large and medium arteries. A number of modalities for inflammatory imaging in the arterial wall are currently in the stages of pre-clinical and clinical development. However, the identification of new targets that are linked to atherosclerosis to allow for dynamic ranges of diagnosis and prognosis still remains a challenge. In this review, we summarize the current status of atherosclerosis imaging aimed at macrophage-related, direct macrophage and non-macrophage as target molecules during different stages of atherogenesis. We also present activated macrophage, biofilm and amyloid fibrils as possible new targets for the development of non-invasive imaging probes to assess atherosclerosis.