Dong-Yeon Kim^1,2,14, Ayoung Pyo^3,4,14, Sehyeon Ji⁵, Sung-Hwan You^2,6, Seong Eun Kim⁵, Daejin Lim⁷, Heejung Kim⁸, Kyung-Hwa Lee⁹, Se-Jeong Oh¹⁰, Ye-rim Jung^3,6, Uh Jin Kim⁵, Subin Jeon³, Seong Young Kwon^3,6, Sae-Ryung Kang^3,6, Hyang Burm Lee¹¹, Hoon Hyun¹², So-Young Kim^2,6, Kyung-Sub Moon¹⁰, Sunwoo Lee¹³, Seung Ji Kang^5,* & Jung-Joon Min^2,3,6,*

¹College of Pharmacy and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, Korea. ²CNCure Biotech, Hwasun, Korea. ³Innovation Center for Molecular Probe Development, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Chonnam National University Medical School and Hwasun Hospital, Hwasun, Korea. ⁴Accelerator & RI Development Team, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Jeongeup, Korea. ⁵Department of Internal Medicine, Chonnam National University Medical School, Hwasun, Korea. ⁶Institute for Molecular Imaging and Theranostics, Chonnam National University Medical School, Hwasun, Korea. ⁷Division of Biomedical Convergence, College of Biomedical Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Korea. ⁸Korea Radioisotope Center for Pharmaceuticals, Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences, Seoul, Korea. ⁹Department of Pathology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Hwasun, Korea. ¹⁰Department of Neurosurgery, Chonnam National University Medical School, Hwasun, Korea. ¹¹Department of Agricultural Biological Chemistry, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Korea. ¹²Department of Biomedical Sciences, Chonnam National University Medical School, Hwasun, Korea. ¹³Department of Chemistry, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Korea. ¹⁴These authors contributed equally: Dong-Yeon Kim, Ayoung Pyo.

^*Corresponding author.

Invasive aspergillosis is a critical complication in immunocompromised patients with hematologic malignancies or with viral pneumonia caused by influenza virus or SARS‑CoV‑2. Although early and accurate diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis can maximize clinical outcomes, current diagnostic methods are time-consuming and poorly sensitive. Here, we assess the ability of 2-deoxy-2-¹⁸F-fluorosorbitol (¹⁸F-FDS) positron emission tomography (PET) to specifically and noninvasively detect Aspergillus infections. We show that ¹⁸F-FDS PET can be used to visualize Aspergillus fumigatus infection of the lungs, brain, and muscles in mouse models. In particular, ¹⁸F-FDS can distinguish pulmonary aspergillosis from Staphylococcus aureus infection, both of which induce pulmonary infiltrates in immunocompromised patients. Thus, our results indicate that the combination of ¹⁸F-FDS PET and appropriate clinical information may be useful in the differential diagnosis and localization of invasive aspergillosis.