Micro-PET imaging of [18F]fluoroacetate combined with [18F]FDG to differentiate chronic Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection from an acute bacterial infection in a mouse model: a preliminary study.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) infection is one of the deadliest infectious diseases worldwide and is responsible for 1.7 million deaths per year. The increase in multidrug-resistant TB poses formidable challenges to the global control of tuberculosis. TB infection could easily yield false-positive results in fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose ([F]FDG) PET imaging for cancer detection because of its high [F]FDG uptake. We describe the combined [F]FDG PET with fluorine-18-fluoroacetate ([F]FAC), a promising analog of carbon-11-acetate, for targeting glycolysis and de novo lipogenesis, respectively, to determine the metabolic differences between chronic TB infection and acute infection.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Six-month-old BALB/c mice were inoculated with Mycobacterium bovis to induce chronic TB infection, and Escherichia coli as well as Staphylococcus aureus to induce acute infection for an in-vivo imaging study. Eighteen days after inoculation for chronic TB infection and 5 days for acute infection, both [F]FDG and [F]FAC micro-PET were performed on the infected mice. Analysis of variance and the Tukey honest ad-hoc test were carried out to determine differences among treatment with different bacterial infections.

RESULTS:

TB infection showed much lower [F] FAC accumulation than acute infection. However, both TB infection and acute infection exhibited high [F]FAC accumulation.

CONCLUSION:

The marked metabolic differences in de novo lipogenesis and glycolysis in [F]FDG and [F]FAC uptakes in micro-PET imaging, respectively, help to differentiate chronic TB infection from acute infection.

• Authors: Chin-Ho Tsao, Chun-Yi Wu, Chi-Wei Chang, Hsin-Ell Wang, Bing-Fu Shih, Ren-Shyan Liu
• Journal: Nuclear medicine communications (Nucl Med Commun) Vol. 40 Issue 6 Pg. 639-644 (Jun 2019) ISSN: 1473-5628 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 30932968 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Fluoroacetates
• Fluorodeoxyglucose F18

Topics

• Acute Disease
• Animals
• Chronic Disease
• Diagnosis, Differential
• Disease Models, Animal
• Fluoroacetates
• Fluorodeoxyglucose F18
• Glycolysis
• Mice
• Mice, Inbred BALB C
• Mycobacterium tuberculosis (physiology)
• Positron-Emission Tomography
• Tuberculosis (diagnostic imaging, metabolism)