Edinburgh Imaging

09 May 22. JNM Editor’s Choice Award

Congratulations to Dr Mark MacAskill who has received the Journal of Nuclear Medicine’s Editor’s Choice Award for the best basic science article.

Visual abstract.
Visual abstract.

Dr Mark MacAskill and co-authors have received the 2022 Editors’ Choice Award for the best basic science article, published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine in 2021.

Quantification of macrophage-driven inflammation during myocardial infarction with 18F-LW223, a novel TSPO radiotracer with binding independent of the rs6971 human polymorphism”.

Dr MacAskill explains: The manuscript for which we are receiving this award describes a novel 18kDa transclocator protein (TSPO) PET radiotracer, [18F]LW223, which we have developed together with colleagues at the University of Glasgow (MacAskill et al., 2021). TSPO has long been a target of interest for assessment of inflammation.

In our manuscript, we detail our work starting from a lead molecule all the way through to preclinical development and validation. One of our main breakthroughs is that the binding of [18F]LW223 is not affected by a common genetic polymorphism within the population. This polymorphism changes the binding site within TSPO and currently effects the majority of TSPO radiotracers developed to date, representing a major barrier for the use of this imaging approach.

In addition, [18F]LW223 displays good in vivo characteristics and was able to map macrophage driven inflammation in a preclinical model of myocardial infarction. We also confirmed the presence of a heart:brain axis, whereby the level of inflammation measured by TSPO in the heart correlates with neuronal TSPO.

This work was primarily undertaken at the Edinburgh Bioquarter campus, using the Edinburgh Imaging Preclinical facility PET scanner, and Edinburgh Imaging Radiochemistry facility.

Dr Mark MacAskill will accept this award at the SNMMI Annual Meeting in June, where he will also present a visual summary of his findings.

 

The figure on the top right is the visual abstract from Macaskill M, Stadulyte A, Williams L, Morgan TEF, Sloan NL, Corral CA et al. Quantification of macrophage-driven inflammation during myocardial infarction with 18F-LW223, a novel TSPO radiotracer with binding independent of the rs6971 human polymorphism. Journal of Nuclear Medicine. 2020 Aug 28. https://doi.org/10.2967/jnumed.120.243600

 

Dr Mark MacAskill, Research Fellow
Dr Mark MacAskill, Research Fellow
We asked Dr MacAskill his thoughts on receiving the award.

“I am honoured to receive this award on behalf of myself and the co-authors, especially from such a prestigious journal and organisation.

I am looking forward to sharing a summary of our research during the plenary session and would like to thank JNM and SNMMI for this recognition. This exposure will help drive the project forward into clinical translation”

 

 

Dr Mark MacAskill is a research fellow working as part of the Dr Adriana Tavares and Professor David Newby groups within the Centre for Cardiovascular Science, University of Edinburgh.

He gained his PhD in vascular biology from the University of Strathclyde in 2014 before moving to the University of Edinburgh to specialise in preclinical PET imaging.

His research interests involve the development and application of novel imaging approaches to understand the underling mechanisms behind adverse cardiovascular remodelling (cardiac and vascular), with a view to develop better prognostic tools and therapeutic strategies. Recently, his main focus has been on the development and application of novel PET radiotracers targeting the inflammatory marker TSPO, for detection of cardiac inflammation following myocardial infarction.

 

 

Social media tags and titles

Congratulations to Dr Mark MacAskill who has received the Journal of Nuclear Medicine’s Editor’s Choice Award for the best basic science article.

@EdinUniMedicine @EdinUniCVS @EdinUniCINEMA @PETisWonderful @MarcDweck