PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Gayatri Gowrishankar AU - Jonathan Hardy AU - Mirwais Wardak AU - Mohammad Namavari AU - Robert E. Reeves AU - Evgenios Neofytou AU - Ananth Srinivasan AU - Joseph C. Wu AU - Christopher H. Contag AU - Sanjiv Sam Gambhir TI - Specific Imaging of Bacterial Infection Using 6″-<sup>18</sup>F-Fluoromaltotriose: A Second-Generation PET Tracer Targeting the Maltodextrin Transporter in Bacteria AID - 10.2967/jnumed.117.191452 DP - 2017 Oct 01 TA - Journal of Nuclear Medicine PG - 1679--1684 VI - 58 IP - 10 4099 - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/58/10/1679.short 4100 - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/58/10/1679.full SO - J Nucl Med2017 Oct 01; 58 AB - 6″-18F-fluoromaltotriose is a PET tracer that can potentially be used to image and localize most bacterial infections, much like 18F-FDG has been used to image and localize most cancers. However, unlike 18F-FDG, 6″-18F-fluoromaltotriose is not taken up by inflammatory lesions and appears to be specific to bacterial infections by targeting the maltodextrin transporter that is expressed in gram-positive and gram-negative strains of bacteria. Methods: 6″-18F-fluoromaltotriose was synthesized with high radiochemical purity and evaluated in several clinically relevant bacterial strains in cultures and in living mice. Results: 6″-18F-fluoromaltotriose was taken up in both gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial strains. 6″-18F-fluoromaltotriose was also able to detect Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a clinically relevant mouse model of wound infection. The utility of 6″-18F-fluoromaltotriose to help monitor antibiotic therapies was also evaluated in rats. Conclusion: 6″-18F-fluoromaltotriose is a promising new tracer that has significant diagnostic utility, with the potential to change the clinical management of patients with infectious diseases of bacterial origin.