Category: futurism – Page 21
Emerging PET Imaging Agents and Targeted Radioligand Therapy: A Review of Clinical Applications and Trials
Targeted radioligand therapy (RLT) is an emerging field in anticancer therapeutics with great potential across tumor types and stages of disease. While much progress has focused on agents targeting somatostatin receptors and prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), the same advanced radioconjugation methods and molecular targeting have spurred the development of numerous theranostic combinations for other targets. A number of the most promising agents have progressed to clinical trials and are poised to change the landscape of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. Here, we present recent data on some of the most important emerging molecular targeted agents with their exemplar clinical images, including agents targeting fibroblast activation protein (FAP), hypoxia markers, gastrin-releasing peptide receptors (GRPrs), and integrins. These radiopharmaceuticals share the promising characteristic of being able to image multiple types of cancer. Early clinical trials have already demonstrated superiority to 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) for some, suggesting the potential to supplant this longstanding PET radiotracer. Here, we provide a primer for practicing radiologists, particularly nuclear medicine clinicians, to understand novel PET imaging agents and their clinical applications, as well as the availability of companion targeted radiotherapeutics, the status of their regulatory approval, the potential challenges associated with their use, and the future opportunities and perspectives.
‘Within 20 Km of 2 Million People’: Major Volcano Is Hiding Two Active Magma Chambers
A major volcano in Nicaragua has not one but two active magma chambers, scientists reveal in a new study, shedding important light on the inner workings of a highly active volcano located near a large human population.
Masaya in western Nicaragua is one of the region’s busiest volcanoes, although its activity in modern times has been mostly “passive degassing, lava lake formation, and vent-clearing explosions,” the study’s authors write in Geophysical Research Letters.
It’s a basaltic shield volcano, so that behavior isn’t surprising. Shield volcanoes are known for highly fluid lava that erupts in slow, effusive flows – such as typical Hawaiian eruptions – rather than the violent blasts of stratovolcanoes.
Infants eye contact ‘tune in’ to speaker’s brainwaves and learn language
Infants use eye contact with speakers to work out what to pay attention to and synchronise their brainwaves, helping them learn language, scientists have shown.
Infants are surrounded by a vast range of stimuli that compete for their attention – sights, sounds, voices – and must somehow work out which things are worth paying attention to and learning from. To do this, they often rely on social cues – eye contact, ‘baby speak’ or someone calling their name, for example – but how this helps with learning is not clear.
The researchers have previously shown that when an infant and adult make eye contact, their brainwaves synchronise with each other.
