CD69 PET of activated immune cells in immunotherapy

The advent of immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment, yet its effectiveness varies widely among patients, underscoring the need for better diagnostic tools to guide therapy.

Traditional imaging techniques often fall short in accurately assessing immunotherapy responses, sometimes mistaking inflammatory responses for tumor progression.

The proposed project addresses this critical need by developing Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging methodologies capable of visualizing early immune cell activation and dynamics, offering a more accurate and timely evaluation of immunotherapy efficacy.

Both preclinical and clinical validation studies will be performed within this project.CD69 is a cell surface receptor that has been identified as an early activation marker on the surface of lymphocytes and other immune cells.

In the context of cancer immunotherapy, CD69 plays a crucial role in the regulation of immune responses, making it a potential target for therapeutic intervention and a useful biomarker for assessing the efficacy of immunotherapeutic strategies.

PET imaging, when combined with CD69 targeting, opens new avenues for the non-invasive evaluation of immune activation in the tumor microenvironment, providing valuable insights into the mechanisms of action of cancer immunotherapies and aiding in patient selection and therapy monitoring.