99mTc-Citrate-gold nanoparticles as a tumor tracer: Synthesis, characterization, radiolabeling and in-vivo studies

Abstract

Targeted drug delivery system can reduce the side effects of high drug concentration by improving drug pharmacokinetics at lower doses. Citrate-AuNPs as a drug delivery system were synthesized via green nanotechnology technique with core size of 10 nm. Citrate-AuNPs were labeled with technetium-99m with radiochemical yield of 85.2 % with good in-vitro stability. By studying the biodistribution of [ 99m Tc]Tc-citrate-AuNPs in solid tumor bearing mice; promising data appeared high uptake and good retention of [ 99m Tc] Tc-citrate-AuNPs in tumor tissues. As a result, the newly nano-platform showed high tumor uptake, which affords potential radiopharmaceutical that could be used as a good tumor imaging probe.