Radiopharmaceuticals for infection imaging

Infectious diseases hold significant global importance, resulting in millions of deaths annually and spreading so swiftly that they present a global public health threat. Diagnosis of infections is usually based on a detailed anamnesis, physical examination, as well as laboratory evaluation, and imaging methods. Nuclear medicine and radionuclide imaging have gained a significant role in the diagnosis of infection in the last decades, mainly due to the restrictions and limitations of conventional diagnosis methods in detecting and diffracting sterile inflammation and infection. In recent years different agents such as peptides, aptamers, and antibodies have been investigated for infection imaging due to the success they accomplished in radio imaging diagnosis of different diseases. In this review, currently used and novel tracers for infection/inflammation imaging have been summarized and their advantages and disadvantages have been reviewed for further possible studies.