Bacteria from the Burkholderia cepacia complex are generally considered to be non-pathogenic to the healthy population. However, some of these species may cause serious nosocomial infections in immunocompromised patients; as such, it is essential to diagnose these infections rapidly so that adequate treatment can be initiated. We report here the use of a radiolabeled siderophore, ornibactin (ORNB), for positron emission tomography imaging. We successfully radiolabeled ORNB with gallium-68 with high radiochemical purity and proved that the resulting complex has optimal in vitro characteristics. In mice, the complex did not show excessive accumulation in organs and was excreted in the urine. We demonstrated that the [68Ga]Ga-ORNB complex accumulates at the site of Burkholderia multivorans infection, including pneumonia, in two animal infection models. These results suggest that [68Ga]Ga-ORNB is a promising tool for the diagnosis, monitoring, and evaluation of the therapeutic response to B. cepacia complex infection.

Department of Microbiology Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry Palacky University and University Hospital Olomouc 775 15 Czech Republic

Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Laboratory of Molecular Structure Characterization Prague 4 142 20 Czech Republic

Institute of Molecular and Translational Medicine Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and Czech Advanced Technology and Research Institute Palacky University Olomouc 779 00 Czech Republic

Laboratory of Experimental Medicine University Hospital Olomouc 779 00 Czech Republic

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