Molecular imaging is a powerful tool for drug development and image-guided therapy because of the ability to elucidate the pharmacokinetics and the drug’s “on-target” efficacy noninvasively. In the context of precision medicine, tracking drug delivery in target tissue using molecular imaging also facilitates the prediction of therapeutic responses in an individualized manner. The recent development of molecular imaging techniques has enabled the tracking of a variety of small-molecular drugs, antibody-drug conjugates, nanoparticles, and recently emerging therapeutic biologics in almost all imaging modalities. Notably, certain drugs have been repurposed as imaging agents due to their inherent imaging contrasts. While many molecular imaging techniques are newly developed or remain in the preclinical stage, some have successfully demonstrated clinical relevance by facilitating the tracking of administered drugs in patients, without the need for biopsy.
To enhance the clinical applicability of molecular imaging, the goal of this research topic is to solicit cutting-edge research on molecular imaging techniques to allow tracking drug delivery systems more sensitively and faithfully to drug pharmacokinetics. In this spirit, this Research Topic aims to explore various methodology development or applications with regard to imaging drug delivery systems with or without adding imaging labels.
Topics of interest include (but not limited to):
-imaging labels
-label-free approaches for imaging drugs
-tracking therapeutic biologics, including stem cells, extracellular vesicles, etc.
-image-guided therapy
-imaging in drug development
-Theranostics systems
-Repurposing drugs as imaging agents
Molecular imaging is a powerful tool for drug development and image-guided therapy because of the ability to elucidate the pharmacokinetics and the drug’s “on-target” efficacy noninvasively. In the context of precision medicine, tracking drug delivery in target tissue using molecular imaging also facilitates the prediction of therapeutic responses in an individualized manner. The recent development of molecular imaging techniques has enabled the tracking of a variety of small-molecular drugs, antibody-drug conjugates, nanoparticles, and recently emerging therapeutic biologics in almost all imaging modalities. Notably, certain drugs have been repurposed as imaging agents due to their inherent imaging contrasts. While many molecular imaging techniques are newly developed or remain in the preclinical stage, some have successfully demonstrated clinical relevance by facilitating the tracking of administered drugs in patients, without the need for biopsy.
To enhance the clinical applicability of molecular imaging, the goal of this research topic is to solicit cutting-edge research on molecular imaging techniques to allow tracking drug delivery systems more sensitively and faithfully to drug pharmacokinetics. In this spirit, this Research Topic aims to explore various methodology development or applications with regard to imaging drug delivery systems with or without adding imaging labels.
Topics of interest include (but not limited to):
-imaging labels
-label-free approaches for imaging drugs
-tracking therapeutic biologics, including stem cells, extracellular vesicles, etc.
-image-guided therapy
-imaging in drug development
-Theranostics systems
-Repurposing drugs as imaging agents
