Issue 10, 2010

Target: ligand interactions of the vascular endothelium. Implications for molecular imaging in inflammation

Abstract

Molecular imaging refers to the non-invasive visualisation of biological processes at the molecular and cellular levels within a living organism, and offers a wide range of potential benefits to both clinical medicine and research into novel therapeutic agents. Inflammation plays an important role in a wide variety of pathological processes and imaging the molecular and cellular machinery that underlies chronic inflammation is attractive and feasible. In this review, we present an overview of molecular imaging of inflammation. We start by characterising molecular and cellular events in early inflammation, identifying current and potential future imaging targets. We focus on the imaging of endothelial cells, which mediate the important first steps in inflammation in any tissue, are readily accessible to imaging probes and which present an approach that can be applied across multiple modalities. We then review the generic requirements for imaging contrast agents and focus on the important considerations in respect of ligands, ligand-target interactions and contrast vehicles. We aim to provide an integrated view of current progress with a focus on promising recent developments in experimental and translational molecular imaging.

Graphical abstract: Target: ligand interactions of the vascular endothelium. Implications for molecular imaging in inflammation

Article information

Article type
Critical Review
Submitted
08 Apr 2010
Accepted
13 Jul 2010
First published
08 Sep 2010

Integr. Biol., 2010,2, 467-482

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