Imaging the Granzyme Mediated Host Immune Response to Viral and Bacterial Pathogens In Vivo Using Positron Emission Tomography

Understanding how the host immune system engages complex pathogens is essential to developing therapeutic strategies to overcome their virulence. While granzymes are well understood to trigger apoptosis in infected host cells or bacteria, less is known about how the immune system mobilizes individual granzyme species in vivo to combat diverse pathogens. Toward the goal of studying individual granzyme function directly in vivo, we previously developed a new class of radiopharmaceuticals termed "restricted interaction peptides (RIPs)" that detect biochemically active endoproteases using positron emission tomography (PET). In this study, we showed that secreted granzyme B proteolysis in response to diverse viral and bacterial pathogens could be imaged with [⁶⁴Cu]Cu-GRIP B, a RIP that specifically targets granzyme B. Wild-type or germline granzyme B knockout mice were instilled intranasally with the A/PR/8/34 H1N1 influenza A strain to generate pneumonia, and granzyme B production within the lungs was measured using [⁶⁴Cu]Cu-GRIP B PET/CT. Murine myositis models of acute bacterial (E. coli, P. aeruginosa, K. pneumoniae, and L. monocytogenes) infection were also developed and imaged using [⁶⁴Cu]Cu-GRIP B. In all cases, the mice were studied in vivo using mPET/CT and ex vivo via tissue-harvesting, gamma counting, and immunohistochemistry. [⁶⁴Cu]Cu-GRIP B uptake was significantly higher in the lungs of wild-type mice that received A/PR/8/34 H1N1 influenza A strain compared to mice that received sham or granzyme B knockout mice that received either treatment. In wild-type mice, [⁶⁴Cu]Cu-GRIP B uptake was significantly higher in the infected triceps muscle versus normal muscle and the contralateral triceps inoculated with heat killed bacteria. In granzyme B knockout mice, [⁶⁴Cu]Cu-GRIP B uptake above the background was not observed in the infected triceps muscle. Interestingly, live L. monocytogenes did not induce detectable granzyme B on PET, despite prior in vitro data, suggesting a role for granzyme B in suppressing their pathogenicity. In summary, these data show that the granzyme response elicited by diverse human pathogens can be imaged using PET. These results and data generated via additional RIPs specific for other granzyme proteases will allow for a deeper mechanistic study analysis of their complex in vivo biology.