HEART-LW223: Human Ex vivo Assessment of Radiotracer Technology
Research type
Research Study
Full title
HEART-LW223: Human Ex vivo Assessment of Radiotracer Technology [18F]LW223 in myocardial biopsy samples
IRAS ID
356986
Contact name
David Newby
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 15 days
Research summary
Inflammation is responsible for many important diseases such as heart attacks. Being able to detect and quantify the amount of inflammation using state-of-the-art scanning technology called Positron Emission Tomography (PET) has large potential to revolutionise diagnosis and treatment of many diseases. PET requires radiotracers that can target a particular molecule for signal quantification. Our novel radiotracer, [18F]LW223, targets translocator protein known as TSPO, which is a well known molecular target for inflammation.
This tissue-based study aims to quantify [18F]LW223 binding levels on small human heart muscle biopsies obtained from patients (with and without recent heart attacks) when they undergo open heart surgery at Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, to investigate how well [18F]LW223 performs when compared with standard blood biomarkers of inflammation.
We plan to obtain heart biopsies and blood samples from up to 36 patients who are already undergoing open heart surgery. There is no follow up required. Participants will not be injected with the PET radiotracer and patient involvement is only for obtaining tissue samples. Results from this study will help design the next part of the human clinical trial involving the same PET radiotracer.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 2
REC reference
25/NS/0076
Date of REC Opinion
21 Jul 2025
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion