Noninvasive in vivo multispectral optoacoustic imaging of apoptosis in triple negative breast cancer using indocyanine green conjugated phosphatidylserine monoclonal antibody.

Noninvasive and nonradioactive imaging modality to track and image apoptosis during chemotherapy of triple negative breast cancer is much needed for an effective treatment plan. Phosphatidylserine (PS) is a biomarker transiently exposed on the outer surface of the cells during apoptosis. Its externalization occurs within a few hours of an apoptotic stimulus by a chemotherapy drug and leads to presentation of millions of phospholipid molecules per apoptotic cell on the cell surface. This makes PS an abundant and accessible target for apoptosis imaging. In the current work, we show that PS monoclonal antibody tagged with indocyanine green (ICG) can help to track and image apoptosis using multispectral optoacoustic tomography

A perspective from transport protein particle: vesicle tether and human diseases / 生理学报

Vesicle-mediated transport of proteins is a highly regulated, multi-step process. When the vesicle is approaching its target membrane compartment, many factors are required to provide specificity and tethering between the incoming vesicle and the target membrane, before vesicle fusion can occur. Tethering factors, which include multisubunit complexes, coiled-coil proteins, with the help of small GTPases, provide the initial interaction between the vesicle and its target membrane. Of the multisubunit tethering factors, the transport protein particle (TRAPP) complexes function in a number of trafficking steps, including endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-to-Golgi transport, intra- and post-Golgi traffic and autophagosome formation. In this review, we summarize the updated progress in structure and function of TRAPP complexes as well as human diseases caused by genetic mutations in TRAPP.

False-negative bone scan and choline pet/ct study in a case of prostate cancer: the pitfall of the small cell prostate carcinoma variant.

We present a rare variant of prostate carcinoma. The patient is a 45-year-old male with elevated prostate-specific antigen levels at screening. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed hyperenhancing lesions throughout the axial skeleton. The fluorine-18 fluorocholine (FCH) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scan showed no abnormal bone findings. Subsequently, a technetium-99 methydiphosphonate (Tc99m-MDP) bone scan was performed, with additional correlative single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/CT imaging of the pelvis and the results were essentially normal. A percutaneous core biopsy of one of the bone lesions in L5 was performed and histology confirmed small cell (neuroendocrine) variant of prostate cancer. Our case illustrates a possible pitfall in molecular imaging of prostate carcinomas, whereby both bone scintigraphy and FCH PET/CT scans showed no definite bone lesions to correlate with marrow signal abnormalities seen on MR imaging. This highlights the need for caution in the diagnostic evaluation of prostate cancers with known small cell variants.