Invicro UK (formerly Imanova) has signed an agreement that grants the company the right to manufacture for distribution and on-site use [18F]MK-6240, an early stage investigational Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging agent. This will facilitate studies assessing the status and progression of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) in the brain. NFTs made up of aggregated tau protein are a hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s Disease.

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TS24: 21st Century Nuclear Medicine: How Do We Realize its Full Potential?
Monday, June 12 | 3:00 – 4:30pm | Location: Mile High 4C (Colorado Convention Center)
Education: Technologist CE Session
Nuclear Medicine as a Research Tool in Translational Drug Discovery and Development | Jack Hoppin, PhD | 4:00 PM – 4:30 PM

John P. Seibyl, MD, Scientist and Managing Director at MNI, a Division of Invicro to present:

CE50: Read with the Experts: Dopamine Transporter Imaging
Monday, June 12 | 4:45 PM – 6:15 PM | Location: Mile High 1A-C (Colorado Convention Center)
Education: CE Session
Presentations: DAT imaging in Parkinsonism | John P Seibyl | 4:45 – 5:15 PM

SS50: New Approaches to Image Parkinson Syndrome
Tuesday, June 13 | 10:00 – 11:30 AM | Location: 704/706 (Colorado Convention Center) Room: 702/704/706 | No. 411
Education: Scientific CE Session
Four year Longitudinal Assessment of Scintigraphic Imaging Biomarkers in a Progressing Parkinson Disease Cohort | John P Seibyl | 10:00 AM 

SS74: Novel Clinical Applications in Tauopathy and Epilepsy
Tuesday, June 13 | 4:45 – 6:15 PM | Location: 704/706 (Colorado Convention Center) | Room: 702/704/706
Education: Scientific CE Session
Initial Clinical PET Studies With The Novel Tau Agent 18-F PI-2620 In Alzheimer’s Disease And Controls | No. 630 | 5:25 PM

Following a £0.5m Medical Research Council (MRC) grant to implement new Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging tracers for mitochondrial dysfunction and synaptic loss, Imanova has been awarded an additional £1m of strategic funding from the MRC for clinical evaluation of this combination of tracers in Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease – Stage 1 of the MIND-MAPS (Molecular Imaging of Neurodegenerative Disease – Mitochondria, Associated Proteins & Synapses) programme.

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In the scope of the MIND MAPS program Invicro UK (formerly Imanova) has recently completed the implementation of three PET ligands to quantify the density of the molecular targets mitochondrial complex-1 (MC1), sigma-1 receptor (σ1R) and synaptic vesicle protein 2A (SV2A) in the living human brain.

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Cardiotoxity is one of the most important adverse reactions of chemotherapy, significantly reducing cancer patient survival rates. Cardiotoxicity can appear at any stage during the disease and standard methods to detect it, such as echocardiography and heart ejection, are sensitive to late stage toxicity only, where the effects are likely to be irreversible.

Stuart McCluskey, an Imperial College London-Imanova sponsored PhD student, has been evaluating the use of a PET imaging agent to help detect early onset chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity, increasing the chances of reversing the damage. We hypothesis that a reduction in mitochondrial membrane potential within the heart will precede observable decreases in heart function. Therefore, PET imaging agents sensitive to changes in this potential may allow earlier diagnosis of cardiotoxicity, impacting treatment strategies. He will be presenting the potential of [18F]Mitophos, developed at Imanova, as a promising PET imaging agent at the following conferences:

“Preclinical evaluation of [18F]Mitophos_07 as an imaging agent for doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity”

• European Society for Molecular Imaging (ESMI) 5-7 April
• International Symposium on Radiopharmaceutical Sciences (ISRS) 14-19 May
• Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Annual Meeting (SNMMI) 10 -14 June

Stuart’s work is collaboratively supervised by Prof Nick Long and Imanova scientists Dr Christophe Plisson and Dr Lisa Wells.

DREADD (Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs) technology is an exciting chemogenetic tool allowing the hijacking of neurons by a molecular switch to remotely activate or silence them.

DREADD are engineered G-protein coupled receptors that can be injected into discrete brain nuclei. Once expressed, the mutated receptors are only activated by inert drug-like small molecules injected peripherally.

In collaboration with Dr Ilse Pienner and Prof David Dexter (Imperial College London), Imanova performed this first-of-kind study by combining DREADD technology with preclinical PET imaging. By exclusively targeting nuclei of interest in a Parkinson’s disease model, a DREADD switch was used to activate neurons and image the dynamic release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the striatum. This study supports the therapeutic potential of targeting nuclei of interest with DREADD and translation to the clinic by using a non-invasive PET imaging approach to measure endogenous dopamine release.

Lisa Wells, Head of Biology at Imanova and co-author of this study commented: “Combining DREADD and PET technologies offers us a powerful molecular approach to elucidate neuronal pathway contributions and measure endogenous neurotransmitter release. We can support the translation of this “molecular switch” into clinical utility through PET imaging”

With a strong presence at BrainPET, this year Imanova has 5 other platform presentations spanning serotonin and endorphin neurotransmitter release, amyloid quantification, tau imaging in CBD and glucocorticoids impact on inflammation.

Imanova is a world-leading expert in imaging sciences and their application to the understanding of disease and translational drug development. Its industry expertise and extensive links with clinicians and scientists in academia provide unrivalled capabilities to facilitate drug development.

Imanova is pleased to announce further expansion of its preclinical team, with the addition of new roles in both Chemistry and Biology. These new roles bring additional capacity and a broadening of capabilities to Imanova’s leading preclinical imaging offering.

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Imanova continues to grow its preclinical offering, to respond to an increased demand from the pharmaceutical market, and is pleased to announce the appointment of a new Preclinical Business Development Manager, Julian Westerman.

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Imanova as selected the national charity, the Down’s Syndrome Association (DSA) as their Charity of the Year 2017.

Kevin Cox, Imanova’s Chief Executive Officer commented, “Imanova is delighted to support the Down’s Syndrome Association as our Charity of the Year. We are committed to helping the community, therefore, each year we organise and participate in several events; like charity runs, bake-offs, International Food Day to raise money to support an institution.

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Roger Gunn, CSO at Invicro UK (formerly Imanova), was this year’s invited lecturer at the Human Amyloid Imaging Conference.

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