Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is an abundant protein on the surface of prostate cancer cells. Therefore, PSMA is a promising target for specific imaging of prostate cancer and may serve as a target for therapeutic applications. Currently, a few PSMA-targeting imaging agents have been introduced in clinical studies for imaging prostate cancer by positron emission tomography/computer tomography (PET/CT). 18F-DCFPyL is currently the most sensitive PSMA-targeting agent for imaging prostate cancer by PET/CT. However, the procedure for producing 18F-DCFPyL involves multiple synthetic steps, and is therefore not readily available. Herein, two easily synthesized PSMA-targeting imaging agents were generated and evaluated for prostate cancer imaging. Both PSMA-targeting imaging agents showed excellent tumor targeting characteristics in live mice and allowed for clear visualization of the prostatic cancer tumors. The data suggests that the new imaging agents are promising for detecting PSMA-abundant prostate cancers and may provide valuable diagnostic information.