Metallic radionuclides in the development of diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals

Abstract

Metallic radionuclides are the mainstay of both diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals. Therapeutic nuclear medicine is less advanced but has tremendous potential if the radionuclide is accurately targeted. Great interest exists in the field of inorganic chemistry for developing target specific radiopharmaceuticals based on radiometals for non-invasive disease detection and cancer radiotherapy. This perspective will focus on the nuclear properties of a few important radiometals and their recent applications to developing radiopharmaceuticals for imaging and therapy. Other topics for discussion will include imaging techniques, radiotherapy, analytical techniques, and radiation safety. The ultimate goal of this perspective is to introduce inorganic chemists to the field of nuclear medicine and radiopharmaceutical development, where many applications of fundamental inorganic chemistry can be found.

Laminin receptor specific therapeutic gold nanoparticles ( 198 AuNP-EGCg) show efficacy in treating prostate cancer

“…Therapeutic applications of radioactive colloidal gold in radiation synovectomy and in related clinical use in human patients are prevalent in the literature and the toxicity effects due to radioactive decay of Au-198 to mercury have been pronounced insignificant at the therapeutic dose of administration (42). A major advantage of such radiotherapy is that only small amounts of radioactivity are required for imaging and therapy (43). The amount of stable mercury produced by decay is low such that no toxicity should be observed.…”

Quantitative structure property relationships on formation constants of radiometals for radiopharmaceuticals applications

“…Diagnostic metal radiopharmaceuticals are used for single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) applications as imaging agents [1,2]. SPECT is employed for radiotracers labeled with a gamma emitting radionuclide while PET requires radiopharmaceutical to be labeled with a positron emitting radionuclide [3].…”

“…Metal-based radiopharmaceuticals are of particular interest and have widely applications in both therapeutic or diagnostic medicinal purposes [1]. Diagnostic metal radiopharmaceuticals are used for single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) applications as imaging agents [1,2].…”

Preparation and first biological evaluation of novel Re-188/Tc-99m peptide conjugates with substance-P

“…This radionuclide is also produced, in very high specific activity and radionuclidic purity, through the transportable 188 W/ 188 Re generator system (Pillai et al, 2012). These two transition elements share a similar chemistry, which allows obtaining analogous complexes having the same structural characteristics with many categories of ligands though this does not occur ubiquitously for all types of compounds (Bhattacharyya and Dixit, 2011). However, a key result that has been firmly demonstrated experimentally maintains that, when a pair of 99m Tc and 188 Re complexes exhibit exactly the same molecular structure and chemical composition, but differ only for the metal ion, they exhibit the same biodistribution properties (Duatti, 2011).…”