Enabling enhanced preclinical nuclear imaging at the University of Hull

The grant application is to upgrade the preclinical scanning facilities for nuclear imaging of small animals (mice and rats) at the University of Hull. These facilities are used for research into disease and human health. The main areas that will be tackled are the diagnosis and staging of disease (particularly cancer) along with the personalised selection of treatment (e.g. whether radiotherapy or chemotherapy is the best treatment, and even which drug will be the most likely to successfully treat the patient). Preclinical scanning allows the use of the animal models in the most effective and essential way to validate radiopharmaceutical drugs before they can be taken into clinical trials in humans. The quality of the data also means that fewer animals are required to understand the drug and demonstrate whether it is suitable for clinical trials in humans.

Radiopharmaceuticals use a miniscule amount of a radioactive substance, generally produced on a small particle accelerator, to allow us to locate disease, track biological processes and select treatment in patients. They provide the most sensitive method and only effective way for tracking molecular level processes non-invasively in the human body.

We have invented new radiopharmaceutical drug candidates at the University of Hull and are also working with both UK based and international pharmaceutical companies to provide data to allow their drugs to progress through to clinical testing and ultimately approved for routine human use (i.e. in the NHS). We support clinicians in developing and testing new drug treatments to determine effective doses and treatment regimes for them to use in patients. The high quality information obtained from the preclinical imaging studies means that these compounds can rapidly and efficiently be tested and validated.

This forms part of a translational pathway in Hull with preclinical research linking through to NHS patient scanning. We can carry out research patient scans and will use the preclinical scanners to gather the data to take new radiopharmaceuticals through to the clinic using our new human production facility on the hospital site (the Molecular Imaging Research Centre at Castle Hill Hospital, Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust).
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The University of Hull has invested in both preclinical and clinical infrastructure for nuclear imaging in PET, SPECT and CT, now extended into the use of therapeutic radioisotopes (i.e. theranostics or molecular radiotherapies) for treatments utilising both alpha and beta emitters. We have a unique strategy that focusses on combining the latest knowledge of radioisotopes with dose-on-demand technology and meeting the translational requirements of regulatory bodies (e.g. MHRA and FDA) to allow progress into first-in-human clinical trials.

The preclinical scanners will supply validation data in mouse models of cancer, rat models of cardiac disease and dosimetry studies that will but utilised to identify candidates and justify their use in humans. There is a particular focus on new uses of molecular imaging in determining immune response, tracking drug delivery and providing personalised therapies.

In Hull, the new scanners will facilitate dosimetry studies (whole body rat), multi-isotope imaging amd high throughput four animal mouse imaging. We do not currently have these capabilities due to the current preclinical scanning instruments that are 10 years old and manufactured with outdated detector technology and insufficient field of view for these experiments. This has resulted in loss of income and inability to fully utilise the otherwise excellent facilities installed in Hull.

We have been highly successful in developing a dose-on-demand PET radiotracer production technology with five patents granted (all five in territories around the world) and commercialisation planned for 2022. This technology coupled with our dedicated preclinical scanner and the match on low volume cyclotron targetry facilitates facile tracer production and will drive rapid translation once the technology is clinically validated (currently under discussion with MHRA).