No abstract

No abstract

Polyphosphonate ligands labelled with radioisotopes decaying by moderate energy beta emission have shown utility as palliative agents for painful bone metastasis. 177Lu (T(1/2)=6.71 d, Ebetamax=497 keV) has radionuclidic properties suitable for use in palliative therapy of bone metastasis. 177Lu was produced at a high specific activity and excellent radionuclidic purity by thermal neutron bombardment of a target prepared from natural Lu. Three polyaminomethylene phosphonate ligands, abbreviated as EDTMP, DTPMP and TTHMP, were synthesized and radiolabelled with 177Lu. Complexation parameters were optimized to achieve maximum yields (97-99.5%). All the complexes were found to retain their stability at room temperature even 14 days after preparation. Biodistribution studies of the complexes were carried out in Wistar rats. All the complexes showed significant bone uptake (6-6.5%/g in tibia at 3 h post-injection (p.i.)) with rapid clearance from blood and minimum uptake in soft tissues. These studies reveal that 177Lu complexes with the synthesized ligands have a potential use in palliative treatment of painful bone metastasis.

Despite being widely used in the clinical setting for sentinel lymph node detection (SLND), (99m)Tc-based colloids (e.g., (99m)Tc-human serum albumin colloids) present a set of properties that are far from ideal. Aiming to design novel compounds with improved biological properties, we describe herein the first class of fully characterized (99m)Tc(CO)₃-mannosylated dextran derivatives with adequate features for SLND. Dextran derivatives, containing the same number of pendant mannose units (13) and a variable number (n) of tridentate chelators (9, n = 1; 10, n = 4, 11, n= 12), have been synthesized and fully characterized. Radiolabeled polymers of the type fac-[(99m)Tc(CO)₃(k³-L)] (12, L = 9, 13, L = 10, 14, L = 11) have been obtained quantitatively in high radiochemical purity (≥ 98%) upon reaction of the dextran derivatives with fac-[(99m)Tc(CO)₃(H₂O)₃]+. The highly stable compounds 13 and 14 were identified by comparing their HPLC chromatograms with the ones obtained for the corresponding rhenium surrogates fac-[Re(CO)₃(k³-10)] (13a) and fac-[Re(CO)₃(k³-11)] (14a), which have been characterized both at the chemical (NMR and IR spectroscopy, and HPLC) and physical level (DLS, AFM and LDV). Compounds 13a and 14a present a positive zeta potential (+ 7.1 mV, pH 7.4) and a hydrodynamic diameter in the range 8.4-8.7 nm. Scintigraphic imaging and biodistribution studies in Wistar rats have shown good accumulation in the sentinel node at 60 min postinjection (6.71 ± 2.35%, 13; and 7.53 ± 0.69%, 14), with significant retention up to 180 min. A clear delineation of the sentinel lymph node without significant washout to other regions was observed in the scintigraphic images. The popliteal extraction of 94.47 ± 2.45% for 14 at 1 h postinjection, as compared to 61.81 ± 2.4% for 13, indicated that 14 is a very promising compound to be further explored as SLN imaging agent.

With an aim of developing a bacteria-specific molecular imaging agent, ciprofloxacin has been modified with a propylamine spacer and linked to two common bifunctional chelators, p-SCN-Bz-DOTA and p-SCN-Bz-NOTA. The two ciprofloxacin conjugates, CP-PA-SCN-Bz-DOTA (1) and CP-PA-SCN-Bz-NOTA (2), were radiolabeled with (68)Ga in >90% radiochemical yield and were moderately stable in vitro for 4 h. The efficacy of (68)Ga-1 and (68)Ga-2 has been investigated in vitro in Staphylococcus aureus cells where bacterial binding of the radiotracers (0.9-1.0% for (68)Ga-1 and 1.6-2.3% for (68)Ga-2) could not be blocked in the presence of excess amount of unlabeled ciprofloxacin. However, uptake of radiotracers in live bacterial cells was significantly higher (p < 0.01) than that in non-viable bacterial cells. Bacterial infection targeting efficacy of (68)Ga-1 and (68)Ga-2 was tested in vivo in rats where the infected muscle-to-inflamed muscle ((68)Ga-1: 2 ± 0.2, (68)Ga-2: 3 ± 0.5) and infected muscle-to-normal muscle ratios ((68)Ga-1: 3 ± 0.4, (68)Ga-2: 6.6 ± 0.8) were found to improve at 120 min p.i. Fast blood clearance and renal excretion was observed for both the radiotracers. The two (68)Ga-labeled infection targeting radiotracers could discriminate between bacterial infection and inflammation in vivo and are worthy of further detailed investigation as infection imaging agents at the clinical level.