Physicochemical and Biological Study of 99m Tc and 68 Ga Radiolabelled Ciprofloxacin and Evaluation of [ 99m Tc]Tc-CIP as Potential Diagnostic Radiopharmaceutical for Diabetic Foot Syndrome Imaging.

This paper presents the application of ciprofloxacin as a biologically active molecule (vector) for delivering diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals to the sites of bacterial infection. Ciprofloxacin-based radioconjugates containing technetium-99m or gallium-68 radionuclides were synthesised, and their physicochemical (stability, lipophilicity) and biological (binding study to Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ) properties were investigated. Both the tested radiopreparations met the requirements for radiopharmaceuticals, and technetium-99m-labelled ciprofloxacin turned out to be a good radiotracer for the tomography of diabetic foot syndrome using SPECT.