Transforming Nuclear Medicine with Nanoradiopharmaceuticals

Abstract

Nuclear medicine is expected to make major advances in cancer diagnosis and therapy; tumor-targeted radiopharmaceuticals preferentially eradicate tumors while causing minimal damage to healthy tissues. The current scope of nuclear medicine can be significantly expanded by integration with nanomedicine, which utilizes nanoparticles for cancer diagnosis and therapy by capitalizing on the increased surface area-to-volume ratio, the passive/active targeting ability and high loading capacity, the greater interaction cross section with biological tissues, the rich surface properties of nanomaterials, the facile decoration of nanomaterials with a plethora of functionalities, and the potential for multiplexing several functionalities within one construct. This review provides a comprehensive discussion of nuclear nanomedicine using tumor-targeted nanoparticles for cancer radiation therapy with either pre-embedded radionuclides or nonradioactive materials which can be extrinsically triggered using various external nuclear particle sources to produce in situ radioactivity. In addition, it describes the prospect of combining nuclear nanomedicine with other modalities to enable synergistically enhanced combination therapies. The review also discusses advances in the fabrication of radionuclides as well as describes laser ablation technologies for producing nanoradiopharmaceuticals, which combine the ease of production with exceptional purity and rapid biodegradability, along with additional imaging or therapeutic functionalities. From a practical standpoint, these attributes of nanoradiopharmaceuticals may provide distinct advantages in diagnostic/therapeutic sensitivity and specificity, imaging resolution, and scalability of turnkey platforms. Coupling image-guided targeted radiation therapy with the possibility of in situ activation of nanomaterials as well as combining with other therapeutic modalities using a multifunctional nanoplatform could herald an era of exciting technological and therapeutic advances to radically transform the landscape of nuclear medicine. The review concludes with a discussion of current challenges and presents the authors’ views on future opportunities to stimulate further research in this rewarding field of high societal impact.

Radiotheranostic Agents in Hematological Malignancies

“…They were labelled with radionuclides for studying their pharmacological properties and biodistribution by using SPECT or PET. Nanoparticles have rapidly emerged as radiopharmaceuticals with different applications, including targeted therapy, image-guided therapy and theranostics ( 63 , 64 ). Many types and variations of nanoparticles have been developed.…”

Shield-activated two-way imaging nanomaterials for enhanced cancer theranostics

“…In recent years, nanoparticles have been used as contrast agents for cancer imaging due to their high surface area to volume ratio and unique physicochemical properties, showing favorable distribution in smaller tissues, which brings many prospects for realizing early diagnosis of tumors and clearer boundaries of tumor imaging. [5][6][7][8] Generally, there are two methods to enhance the imaging contrast: one is to improve the imaging performance and the other is to reduce the imaging background signal. The former is more concerned with improving the nano-contrast agents to attain higher imaging signals at the same dose and combining multiple imaging modalities into one nanoprobe to achieve complementary advantages.…”

Diagnostic and Therapeutic Radiopharmaceuticals

“…To highlight the rapidly evolving field of radiopharmaceutical science, the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science welcome contributions to an upcoming Virtual Special Issue, "Diagnostic and Therapeutic Radiopharmaceuticals", intended to keep readers up-to-date with the fast-growing number of new tools and approaches devoted to the discovery of novel radiopharmaceuticals such as small-molecule peptides, 5 antibodies, 6,7 and nanoparticles. 8,9 As a community of medicinal radiochemists, we are in a unique position to significantly contribute to the field through the design of innovative radiochemical reactions to access novel radiopharmaceuticals, designing and performing in vitro and preclinical experiments to deepen our knowledge on their pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and metabolism profile in vivo. All these efforts promote the continuous growth of radiopharmaceutical sciences, allowing researchers to expedite the translation of highly effective imaging and therapeutic agents from preclinical to clinical practice to improve the care of patients.…”

“…To highlight the rapidly evolving field of radiopharmaceutical science, the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science welcome contributions to an upcoming Virtual Special Issue, “Diagnostic and Therapeutic Radio­pharmaceuticals”, intended to keep readers up-to-date with the fast-growing number of new tools and approaches devoted to the discovery of novel radiopharmaceuticals such as small-molecule peptides, antibodies, , and nanoparticles. , …”