Unmet Need: Assessing kidney function is often essential for clinical decision making for a variety of diseases including chronic kidney disorder (CKD). CKD affects more than 30 million Americans and millions of others are at an increased risk of developing it. The gold standard for measuring renal function for diagnosing/monitoring CKD and other disorders involving renal dysfunction is calculating glomerular filtration rate (GFR). GFR can be measured in multiple ways, but each presents important limitations. For example, GFR can be estimated via insulin clearance rate but this is time-consuming and costly. It can also be estimated by measuring blood clearance, but this method cannot measure split renal function or provide any structural imaging of the kidneys. Filtered single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) with 99mTc-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (99mTc-DTPA) and 99mTcmercaptuacetyltriglycine (99mTc-MAG3) may also be used for 3-dimensional renal imaging and anatomical co-registration, but it requires a prolonged acquisition and low single pass extraction, which presents a major obstacle for reliable imaging. Consequently, there is a critical need for an imaging method and tracers that can provide rapid 3-dimensional imaging of the kidneys for assessing renal structure and function.
Technology Overview: Johns Hopkins researchers have radiolabeled a B-Complex vitamin substance that was previously shown to exhibit rapid renal excretion, with positron emitting radionuclides for use in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging of the kidneys. Good radiochemical yield of the substance was obtained along with high specific activity and high chemical and radiochemical purity. The radiolabeling of this vitamin substance enables it to serve as a marker for renal function and anatomy when used in PET for obtaining high quality, dynamic images of one or both of the kidneys with limited radiation exposure. Renal excretion in rats has been characterized successfully with this novel imaging tracer using PET.
Stage of Development: The inventors have generated a novel marker of renal function and anatomy that can be used for PET imaging of the kidneys. It has been used in vivo in rats with success but further research is still required to test the efficacy of this agent during PET imaging in human patients.
Inventors: Sanjay Jain, Alvaro Ordonez
Patent Status: Pending WO 2020/055951
