Clinical and Experimental Gastroenterology (Dec 2023)

PSMA-Targeted PET Radiotracer [18F]DCFPyL as an Imaging Biomarker in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

  • Ismail MS,
  • Peters DE,
  • Rowe SP,
  • Salavati A,
  • Sharma S,
  • Anders RA,
  • Pomper M,
  • Slusher BS,
  • Selaru FM

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 16
pp. 237 – 247

Abstract

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Mohamed Saleh Ismail,1,* Diane E Peters,2,3,* Steven P Rowe,4,5,* Ali Salavati,6 Sowmya Sharma,1 Robert A Anders,7 Martin Pomper,2,4,5,* Barbara S Slusher,2,3,8,* Florin M Selaru1,5,* 1Division of Gastroenterology, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD, USA; 2Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD, USA; 3Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery, Baltimore, MD, USA; 4Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD, USA; 5The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD, USA; 6Ahmanson Translational Theranostics Division, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA; 7The Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD, USA; 8Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD, USA*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Florin M Selaru; Barbara S Slusher, Email [email protected]; [email protected]: Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is highly and specifically upregulated in active-inflamed mucosa of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We hypothesized that this upregulation would be detectable using a PSMA-targeted positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging agent, [18F]DCFPyL, enabling non-invasive visualization of inflammation. A noninvasive means of detecting active inflammation would have high clinical value in localization and management of IBD.Study: We performed [18F]DCFPyL imaging in three IBD patients with active disease. Abnormally increased gastrointestinal [18F]DCFPyL uptake was observed in areas with endoscopic, histologic, and immunohistochemical inflammation, demonstrating partial overlap of segments of bowel with abnormal [18F]DCFPyL uptake and active inflammation.Conclusion: This study demonstrates that PSMA-targeted [18F]DCFPyL PET can effectively detect regions of inflamed mucosa in patients with IBD, suggesting its utility as a non-invasive imaging agent to assess location, extent, and disease activity in IBD.Keywords: IBD, disease activity, PSMA, GCPII, [18F]DCFPyL

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