MC1R and melanin-based molecular probes for theranostic of melanoma and beyond.

Malignant melanoma is accounting for most of skin cancer-associated mortality. The incidence of melanoma increased every year worldwide especially in western countries. Treatment efficiency is highly related to the stage of melanoma. Therefore, accurate staging and restaging play a pivotal role in the management of melanoma patients. Though 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron-emission tomography (PET) has been widely used in imaging of tumor metastases, novel radioactive probes for specific targeted imaging of both primary and metastasized melanoma are still desired. Melanocortin receptor 1 (MC1R) and melanin are two promising biomarkers specifically for melanoma, and numerous research groups including us have been actively developing a plethora of radioactive probes based on targeting of MC1R or melanin for over two decades. In this review, some of the MC1R-targeted tracers and melanin-associated molecular imaging probes developed in our research and others have been briefly summarized, and it provides a quick glance of melanoma-targeted probe design and may contribute to further developing novel molecular probes for cancer theranostics.© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Pharmacological Society.

Citation

Hui Shi, Zhen Cheng. MC1R and melanin-based molecular probes for theranostic of melanoma and beyond. Acta pharmacologica Sinica. 2022 Aug 25

PMID: 36008707

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