Safety Study of Single-Dose Intravenously Administered DOTA-Siglec-9 Peptide in Sprague Dawley Rats

The peptide-based radioactive compound [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-DOTA-Siglec-9 is a novel agent for imaging of inflammation with positron emission tomography. The drug target of [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-DOTA-Siglec-9 is vascular adhesion protein 1. Previous studies have obtained promising results with [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-DOTA-Siglec-9 in experimental animals. However, before taking this novel imaging agent into clinical trials, safety and toxicological studies need to be performed with the nonradioactive precursor compound DOTA-Siglec-9. This extended single-dose toxicity study was designed to provide information on the major toxic effects of DOTA-Siglec-9 and to indicate possible target organs after a single intravenous (iv) injection in rats. The study was performed using 60 adult Hsd: Sprague Dawley rats and included a control group and a treatment group to investigate the toxicity of DOTA-Siglec-9 solution at a final concentration of 0.2 mg/mL after a single iv injection of 582 µg/kg. The maximum dose tested was 1,000-fold the clinical dose on a mg/kg basis as indicated in European Medicines Agency International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use guideline M3(R2). The planned human clinical dose is approximately 0.582 µg of DOTA-Siglec-9 per kg of body mass. This study demonstrates that iv administration of DOTA-Siglec-9 at a dose of 582 µg/kg was well tolerated in rats and did not produce toxicologically significant adverse effects.