Collagen-Targeting PET Probe May Improve Pulmonary Fibrosis Diagnosis And Treatment, Massachusetts General Hospital Reveals
A PET imaging probe developed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators appears able to diagnose and stage pulmonary fibrosis—an often life-shortening lung disease—as well as monitor the response to treatment. In their paper published in Science Translational Medicine, the team reports how the collagen-targeting probe, called 68Ga-CBP8, bound to scar tissue in the lungs of two animal models in a way that indicated the extent of fibrosis and also detected reduced fibrosis in animals that received an anti-fibrotic drug. Experiments using human lung tissue suggested that the probe also could differentiate between stable disease and progressive fibrosis, information important to treatment planning.