Development of inorganic nanoparticles for radionuclide therapy in cancer treatment

Radionuclide therapy is an important cancer treatment modality that makes use of the local irradiation from radionuclides at the tumor sites. Radiopharmaceuticals are normally composed of three components: radionuclide, carrier and tumor targeting agent. In terms of the radionuclide carriers, macrocyclic and acyclic chelators are commonly used...

Ultrasmall Gold Nanoparticles Radiolabeled with Iodine-125 as Potential New Radiopharmaceutical

The relatively high linear energy transfer of Auger electrons, which can cause clustered DNA damage and hence efficient cell death, makes Auger emitters excellent candidates for attacking metastasized tumors. Moreover, gammas or positrons are usually emitted along with the Auger electrons, providing the possibility of theragnostic...

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

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...

Iron oxide nanoparticles as carriers for the Dy-166/Ho-166 in vivo generator: A study into the characteristics and retention of Dy and Ho in iron oxide nanoparticles

Background:<br/>Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Targeted radionuclide therapy has become a important treatment, this is when a carrier molecule is attached to a radionuclide to deliver cytotoxic radiation levels to diseased cells. β<br/>− emitters are frequently used in RNT because they have a long penetration depth, such...

First preclinical evaluation of [²²⁵Ac]Ac-DOTA-JR11 and comparison with [¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu-DOTA-JR11, alpha versus beta radionuclide therapy of NETs

Background: The [¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu-DOTA-TATE mediated peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) is sometimes leading to treatment resistance and disease recurrence. An interesting alternative could be the somatostatin antagonist, [¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu-DOTA-JR11, that demonstrated better biodistribution...

Synthesis of ^197m/gHg labelled gold nanoparticles for targeted radionuclide therapy

Meitner-Auger-electron emitters have a promising potential for targeted radionuclide therapy of cancer because of their short range and the high linear energy transfer of Meitner-Auger-electrons (MAE). One promising MAE candidate is 197m/gHg with its half-life of 23.8 » h and 64.1 » h, respectively, and high MAE yield. Gold nanoparticles ...

Core–shell structured gold nanoparticles as carrier for ¹⁶⁶Dy/¹⁶⁶Ho in vivo generator

Background: Radionuclide therapy (RNT) has become a very important treatment modality for cancer nowadays. Comparing with other cancer treatment options, sufficient efficacy could be achieved in RNT with lower toxicity. β⁻ emitters are frequently used in RNT due to the long tissue penetration depth of the β⁻ particles....

Uptake and subcellular distribution of radiolabeled polymersomes for radiotherapy

Polymersomes have the potential to be applied in targeted alpha radionuclide therapy, while in addition preventing release of recoiling daughter isotopes. In this study, we investigated the cellular uptake, post uptake processing and intracellular localization of polymersomes. Methods: High-content microscopy was used to validate polymersome...

Fluorescent nuclear track detectors for alpha radiation microdosimetry

Background: While alpha microdosimetry dates back a couple of decades, the effects of localized energy deposition of alpha particles are often still unclear since few comparative studies have been performed. Most modern alpha microdosimetry studies rely for large parts on simulations, which negatively impacts both the simplicity of the...

A Critical Review of Alpha Radionuclide Therapy: How to Deal with Recoiling Daughters?

This review presents an overview of the successes and challenges currently faced in alpha radionuclide therapy. Alpha particles have an advantage in killing tumour cells as compared to beta or gamma radiation due to their short penetration depth and high linear energy transfer (LET). Touching briefly on the clinical successes of radionuclides...