18F-fluorodeoxysorbitol

**18F-fluorodeoxysorbitol ([18F]FDS)** is a radiopharmaceutical agent used for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. It is specifically designed to image bacterial infections with high selectivity and sensitivity. Unlike traditional tracers such as [18F]FDG that accumulate in both infection and inflammation sites, [18F]FDS demonstrates pathogen-specific uptake—particularly by Gram-negative bacteria like Klebsiella pneumoniae—allowing it to distinguish between bacterial infection and sterile inflammation. The mechanism relies on the selective uptake of the tracer by live bacteria due to their unique metabolic pathways; dead bacteria or inflamed tissues without active infection do not show significant accumulation. This makes [18F]FDS a promising tool for noninvasive monitoring of disease progression in infectious diseases and potentially for tracking tumor-targeting bacteria in cancer therapy research[1][2][5][6].

Other names

2-18F-fluorodeoxysorbitolFDS PET tracer