VisEn Medical, a provider of fluorescence imaging solutions from research through medicine, has expanded its FMT imaging platform with an FMT Multi-Species Imaging Module, to extend FMT imaging and related applications into larger preclinical animal models.
VisEn Medical also reported that it expects to present new study results from its recently-launched Cat B 750 FAST and Annexin-Vivo fluorescence imaging agents at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, highlighting translational imaging advances in oncology research.
VisEn’s new FMT Multi-Species Imaging Module enables FMT quantitative imaging in an expanded range of larger preclinical animal models, including rats, hamsters and guinea pigs, thereby further extending FMT imaging research into areas typically studied in larger animals. The areas include metabolic, toxicology and biodistribution studies, as well as certain vaccines, and obesity, bone and hypertension studies. The Multi-Species Imaging Module is designed to be compatible with all of VisEn’s fluorescence imaging agents, and will be available later in 2010.
The second imaging agent Cat B 750 FAST, utilizes VisEn’s FAST activatable agent platform to target Cathepsin (Cat) B, a lysosomal cysteine protease over-expressed in cancers and premalignant lesions and associated with cancer growth, neo-vascularization and metastasis.
Jeffrey Peterson, vice president of applied biology at VisEn, said: “We developed an Annexin red imaging agent, Annexin-Vivo 750, which targets Annexin V, a well-characterized biomarker for apoptosis. The results presented at the AACR Annual Meeting highlight how Annexin-Vivo 750 enables the rapid in vivo assessment of therapeutic efficacy in key cancer models.
“In addition, the agent is increasingly being used in researching a variety of other pathological conditions involving apoptosis including stroke, atherosclerosis, myocardial ischemia, and liver toxicity. Quantification of Cat B activity in the tumor environment is a valuable biomarker for the detection of cancer and metastases, as well as the development and monitoring of anti-cancer therapies.”