Advances in research of imaging agents for bacterial infection

Abstract:

Imaging agents for bacterial infection are composed of some tracer groups including radionuclides and fluorescent dyes conjugated to some guides which specifically target bacteria. By detecting the tracer signals, bacterial infection sites can be positioned. So far, on the basis of the specific binding sites of bacteria (such as cell wall, enzyme and receptor), a lot of imaging agents are constructed for bacterial infection. These agents include radiolabelled antibiotics, bacteriophage, antimicrobial peptides, nucleosides and nucleoside analogs and fluorochrome labeled sugars. They are promising to detect clinical infection disease for their highly specifically accumulation in the infection sites, but not in the non-bacterial induced inflammation sites and normal tissues. Here we reviewed the types, imaging mechanisms and the latest progress of these imaging agents for bacterial infection. Based on this, characteristics of ideal imaging agents for bacterial infection are also summarized, and it can be useful for further study and development of new imaging agents.