# Imaging bacterial infections with 2nd generation maltodextrins

> **NIH NIH R01** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2023 · $664,310

## Abstract

Bacterial infections ranging from heart valve infections (endocarditis) to bone infections (osteomyelitis) are a
growing problem in health care today and cause significant morbidity and mortality. The unmet clinical need is
our inability to diagnose bacterial infections at an early stage in a specific and sensitive manner. At present,
heart valve infections, bone infections and abscesses are diagnosed on the basis of clinical judgment
augmented by several non-specific imaging techniques (e.g., CT, MRI, white blood cell scans) and cultures. .
However, these approaches are either indirect in the case of imaging or take several days in the case of
cultures. The central objective of this proposal is to develop the next generation of maltodextrin based PET
contrast agents that can image and diagnose early stage gram positive and gram negative infections. We
have recently demonstrated that a new optimized maltodextrin targeting ligand termed thiomalto-triose that can
image gram positive bacterial infections in vivo. The following specific aims are proposed:
Specific Aim 1: Synthesis and Characterization of 18F thiomalto-triose based bacterial targeting ligands
Specific Aim 2: Evaluation of lead compounds for the detection of gram negative infections in an animal
model of bacterial osteomyelitis.
Specific Aim 3: Evaluation of lead compounds for the detection of gram positive infections in an
animal model of bacterial endocarditis

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10673086
- **Project number:** 5R01EB029320-04
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Mark Myron Goodman
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $664,310
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-08-15 → 2025-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10673086

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10673086, Imaging bacterial infections with 2nd generation maltodextrins (5R01EB029320-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10673086. Licensed CC0.

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