Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

Published in

MDPI, Journal of Fungi, 6(7), p. 407, 2021

DOI: 10.3390/jof7060407

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Radionuclide Imaging of Fungal Infections and Correlation with the Host Defense Response

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

The human response to invading fungi includes a series of events that detect, kill, or clear the fungi. If the metabolic host response is unable to eliminate the fungi, an infection ensues. Some of the host response’s metabolic events to fungi can be imaged with molecules labelled with radionuclides. Several important clinical applications have been found with radiolabelled biomolecules of inflammation. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose is the tracer that has been most widely investigated in the host defence of fungi. This tracer has added value in the early detection of infection, in staging and visualising dissemination of infection, and in monitoring antifungal treatment. Radiolabelled antimicrobial peptides showed promising results, but large prospective studies in fungal infection are lacking. Other tracers have also been used in imaging events of the host response, such as the migration of white blood cells at sites of infection, nutritional immunity in iron metabolism, and radiolabelled monoclonal antibodies. Many tracers are still at the preclinical stage. Some tracers require further studies before translation into clinical use. The application of therapeutic radionuclides offers a very promising clinical application of these tracers in managing drug-resistant fungi.