Even its name is a testament to how enigmatic the tingible macrophage has been. Tingible, which means stainable, certainly gives no clues to its functions – but was, at least, one thing that was known about the cells. Now, scientists at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have tracked the lifecycle and function of tangible macrophages in the lymph nodes, with implications for understanding autoimmune disorders, which are still poorly understood. Published March 2, 2023, in the journal Cell, the study highlights intravital imaging techniques the scientists used to observe how macrophages formed within the lymph nodes and how they behaved in real time.

The U.S. FDA has approved Polarean Imaging plc’s drug-device combination product, Xenoview, for use with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in evaluating lung ventilation in adults and children aged 12 and older. The hyperpolarized contrast agent, which is prepared from the Xenon Xe 129 gas blend, is expected to be commercially available in the U.S. starting next month.

Researchers from the University of Saskatchewan have developed a novel theranostic candidate, [67Cu]EB-TATE, as an alternative to [177Lu]DOTATATE, for the imaging of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NET). EB-TATE, which is a derivative of octreotate with evans blue (EB), was radiolabeled with electron linear accelerator-produced 67CuCl2.

Rational drug design based on EPI-X4, endogenous antagonist of C-X-C motif chemokine receptor (CXCR4), led to the identification of optimized analogues named JMF-01 to JMF-07, which demonstrated increased antagonistic activity.

International research project Multicentre Epilepsy Lesion Detection (MELD), led by University College London, has developed artificial intelligence software that can identify minute brain anomalies that lead to epilepsy seizures. These anomalies, known as focal cortical dysplasia, can often be treated with surgery but are difficult to visualize on an MRI.