Developing new tracers that detect low oxygen levels

Development of new hypoxia-avid PET agents for the imaging of chronic cardiovascular disease

Dr Richard Southworth and his team at King’s College London are studying new radioactive tracers that could help doctors diagnose heart disease earlier. When the blood supply to the heart is restricted by narrowed or blocked arteries, tissues can't receive enough oxygen to function normally. This is called hypoxia. Low grade hypoxia can change the structure of the heart, ultimately leading to heart failure. Microvascular disease - where the smallest arteries in the heart become blocked - can also lead to hypoxia. This is commonly associated with diabetes and is difficult to diagnose. By the time these changes can be detected by our existing imaging techniques, treatment is difficult. In this project, Dr Southworth will develop radioactive tracer compounds that target hypoxic tissue, which will allow us to look for hypoxia using an imaging technique called positron emission tomography, or PET. He will test these new tracer compounds in rats with low grade heart hypoxia to show that they work and how they compare to existing tracers, before moving them towards clinical trials in people. These tracers could be a new way to detect and diagnose certain types of heart disease much earlier than we can now, and allow doctors to detect areas of heart tissue that may be vulnerable to damage.