Apoptosis is a regulated cell death induced by extrinsic and intrinsic stimulants. Tracking of apoptosis provides an opportunity for the assessment of cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases as well as monitoring of cancer therapy at early stages. There are some key mediators in apoptosis cascade, which could be considered as specific targets for delivering imaging or therapeutic agents. The targeted radioisotope-based imaging agents are able to sensitively detect the physiological signal pathways which make them suitable for apoptosis imaging at a single-cell level. Radiopeptides take advantage of both the high sensitivity of nuclear imaging modalities and favorable features of peptide scaffolds. The aim of this study is to review the characteristics of those radiopeptides targeting apoptosis with different mechanisms.

凋亡是由外源性和内在性兴奋剂诱导的受调节的细胞死亡。追踪细胞凋亡为评估心血管疾病和神经退行性疾病以及早期监测癌症治疗提供了机会。凋亡级联反应中有一些关键介体，可以将其视为传递成像或治疗剂的特定靶标。靶向的基于放射性同位素的成像剂能够灵敏地检测生理信号通路，这使其适合于单细胞水平的细胞凋亡成像。放射性肽既利用核成像方式的高灵敏度又利用肽支架的有利特征。这项研究的目的是审查以不同机制靶向细胞凋亡的那些放射性肽的特征。