The PET tracer being advanced in clinical testing was discovered by Bristol-Myers Squibb starting from an active lead macrocyclic peptide identified by PeptiDream using its PDPS technology. The PET tracer consists of a macrocyclic peptide conjugated to a radioligand. The macrocyclic peptide portion of the PET tracer binds to an antigen over-expressed on tumor cells and tumor infiltrating immune cells, thereby accumulating at the site of a tumor and allowing for the non- invasive visualization (potentially longitudinally) of the tumors in patients.
PeptiDream news release, February 15, 2018
PeptiDream and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) study PET tracer for tumor bio-imaging