Technology

PROBLEM: Tools needed to see the immune status of a patient to help determine treatment plan.

SOLUTION: A whole body scan that shows activation of cytotoxic immune cells may provide timely assessment of immunotherapy response. VisAcT®, trade name of [18F]F-AraG, CellSight's PET imaging tracer is a Fluorine 18 labeled analog of an FDA approved ArabinoFuranosylGuanine prodrug, Nelarabine. VisAcT® homes in on and images activated T cells - the killer cells - critical to any successful immune modulating therapy. VisAcT® is agnostic to the therapy type and can be used for a wide range of T cell modulating therapies including checkpoint inhibitors, cancer vaccines, chemo- and radiation therapy or a combination of immunotherapy and conventional medicines.

CellSight welcomes opportunities to partner with pharmaceutical companies to integrate imaging during therapy development and clinical deployment.


Publications

Levi J. and Song H. The other immuno-PET: Metabolic tracers in evaluation of immune responses to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy for solid tumors. Frontiers in Immunology, 2023. [ view online ]

Levi J, Duan H, Yaghoubi S, Packiasamy J, Huynh L, Lam T, Shaikh F, Behera D, Song H, Blecha J, Jivan S, Seo Y, VanBrocklin H. Biodistribution of a Mitochondrial Metabolic Tracer, 18F-FAraG, in Healthy Volunteers. Molecular Imaging. Volume 2022. [ view online ]

Guglielmetti C, Levi J, Huynh TL, Tiret B, Blecha J, Tang R, Van Brocklin HF, Chaumeil MM. Longitudinal imaging of T-cells and inflammatory demyelination in a preclinical model of multiple sclerosis using 18F-FAraG PET and MRI. J Nucl Med. 2021 Apr 9:jnumed.120.259325. [ view online ]

Levi J, Goth S, Huynh L, Lam T, Huynh T.L., Schulte B, Packiasamy JA. 18F-FAraG PET for CD8 Profiling of Tumors and Assessment of Immunomodulation by Chemotherapy. 2020 Nov 6;jnumed.120.249078. [ view online ]

Levi J, Lam T, Goth SR, Yaghoubi S, Bates J, Ren G, Jivan S, Huynh TL, Blecha JE, Khattri R, Schmidt KF, Jennings D, VanBrocklin H. Imaging of activated T cells as an early predictor of immune response to anti-PD-1 therapy. Cancer Res. 2019 May 7. pii: canres.0267.2019. [ view online ]

Franc BL, Goth S, MacKenzie J, Li X, Blecha J, Lam T, Jivan S, Hawkins RA, VanBrocklin H. In vivo PET imaging of the activated immune environment in a small animal model of inflammatory arthritis. Mol Imaging. 2017 Jan 1;16:1536012117712638. [ view online ]

Ronald JA, Kim BS, Gowrishankar G, Namavari M, Alam IS, D'Souza A, Nishikii H, Chuang HY, Ilovich O, Lin CF, Reeves R, Shuhendler A, Hoehne A, Chan CT, Baker J, Yaghoubi SS, VanBrocklin HF, Hawkins R, Franc BL, Jivan S, Slater JB, Verdin EF, Gao KT, Benjamin J5, Negrin R, Gambhir SS. A PET imaging strategy to visualize activated T cells in acute graft-versus-host disease elicited by allogenic hematopoietic cell transplant. Cancer Res. 2017 Jun 1;77(11):2893-2902. [ view online ]

Namavari M, Chang YF, Kusler B, Yaghoubi S, Mitchell BS, Gambhir SS. Synthesis of 2'-deoxy-2'-[18F]fluoro-9-β-D-arabinofuranosylguanine: a novel agent for imaging T-cell activation with PET. Mol Imaging Biol. 2011 Oct;13(5):812-8. [ view online ]


Supplemental

Khan S, Shin J H, Ferri V., Cheng N, Noel J E, Kuo C, Sunwoo J B, Pratx G. High-resolution positron emission microscopy of patient-derived tumor organoids. Nat. Comm 2021 12:5883. [ view online ]

Iravani A, Hicks R. Imaging the Cancer Immune Environment and Its Response to Pharmacologic Intervention, Part 2: The Role of Novel PET Agents. J Nucl Med. 2020 Nov;61(11):1553-1559. [ view online ]

Krekorian M, Fruhwirth GO, Srinivas M, Figdor CG, Heskamp S, Witney TH, Aarntzen EHJG. Imaging of T-cells and their responses during anti-cancer immunotherapy. Theranostics. 2019 Oct 16;9(25):7924-7947. [ view online ]


Presentations

iSRS 2023. Synthesis of [18F]F-AraG Using a Second-Generation Precursor and Its Utility Across Multiple Radiochemistry Platforms.

SNNMI 2023. A novel mitochondrial-targeted [18F]F-AraG positron emission tomography (PET) biomarker for early diagnosis and monitoring of cardiotoxicity.

Immuno-Oncology Symposium (2022), Center for Translation Cancer Research, Western University. Towards in vivo Immunoscore: Assessing Systemic Immune Response with [18F]F-AraG.

SITC 2021 poster presentation. AI-assisted whole-body assessment of immunotherapy response using [18F]F-AraG, a PET agent for activated T cells. [ view online ]

WMIC 2021 Spotlight Session – Activity-based Sensing. The other ImmunoPET: Visualizing T cell Activity with [18F]F-AraG.

SNNMI 2021 poster presentation. PET imaging of activated T cells in pancreatic tumors with [18F]F-AraG. [ view online ]

UCSF Annual Imaging Research Symposium 2020. Caroline Guglielmetti presented: Improving brain lesion characterization in a multiple sclerosis model using [18F]F-AraG PET and MR imaging of T cells and inflammatory demyelination.

WMIC 2020 Immuno-Oncology Session. Jelena Levi presented: [18F]F-AraG PET for CD8 profiling of tumors and assessment of immunomodulation by chemotherapy.

WMIC 2020 Cell Tracking Session. Caroline Guglielmetti presented: Longitudinal imaging of activated T cells and inflammatory demyelination using MRI and [18F]F-AraG PET in a novel multiple sclerosis model.

SNNMI 2020 Infection Session. Henry VanBrocklin presented: Imaging viral load and T cell activation in HIV: tools for cure development.

IBA Radiopharma Webinar 2019 The role of PET imaging in Immuno-Oncology. Jelena Levi presented: ImmunoPET for imaging immune responses - 18F labeled agents. [ watch ]

WMIC 2019 Oncology Session. Poster presentation: Imaging of activated T cells as an early predictor of immune response to anti-PD-1 therapy.

WMIC 2018 Imaging in Cell and Immune Therapy (ICIT)/Endogenous Immunity and Microenvironment Workshop. Jelena Levi presented: Evaluating immunological response using T cell specific PET imaging agent, [18F]F-AraG, in preclinical models and in clinical trials.

2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology Conference. Poster presentation: A study to evaluate immunological response to PD-1 inhibition in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) using novel PET imaging with [18F]F-AraG.