Polymeric micelles and the Dy-166/Ho-166 generator

Polymeric micelles and the Dy-166/Ho-166 generator: A study of the loading mechanism of Dy/Dy-166 and Ho-166 into PCL-b-PEO polymeric micelles for imaging and cancer treatment

Smit, Rinus (TU Delft Applied Sciences)

Denkova, A.G. (mentor)
Wang, R. (mentor)
de Kruijff, R.M. (graduation committee)
Eelkema, R. (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Applied Sciences

2023-11-03

A radioisotope used in radionuclide therapy is Holmium-166 (Ho-166). The treatment effectiveness of Ho-166 could be improved by the use of a so called in vivo Dysprosium-166(Dy-166)/Ho-166 generator. The application of this generator is hindered by an effect called internal conversion (IC). This affect can arise after the decay of Dy-166 to Ho-166, which can cause separation of Ho-166 from its carrier.
Polymeric micelles might form a solution in the application of the Dy-166/Ho-166 generator in radionuclide therapy. The main goal of this thesis was to investigate and understand the loading mechanism of metallic species and polymeric micelles with a focus on the loading of Dy/Dy-166 and Ho-166.

It was found that it was not effective to load metallic species (Dy/Dy-166) as free ions or as solid precipitates. Loading metallic species as aqueous hydroxides showed to be crucial for achieving a good loading and high stability. The second goal was to study if polymeric micelles were able to retain Ho-166 inside their core under the effects of internal conversion. No additional losses of Ho-166 were found when Dy/Dy-166 and Ho-166 were loaded into the micelles. It was concluded that the PCL-PEO micelles prevented the loss of Ho-166 under internal conversion effects.

Radionuclide therapy
Polymeric micelles
Dysprosium-166
Holmium-166
Gallium-68
Loading mechanism

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:47856dba-96d5-42d3-a31e-68492b893a23

Student theses

master thesis

© 2023 Rinus Smit