First Results on Zinc Oxide Thick Film Deposition by Inverted Magnetron Sputtering for Cyclotron Solid Targets Production.

The magnetron sputtering technique has been investigated in recent years with ever-growing interest as a verifiable solid target manufacturing technology aimed at the production of medical radionuclides by using low-energy cyclotron accelerators. However, the possible loss of high-cost materials prevents access to work with isotopically enriched metals. The need for expensive materials for the supply of the growing demand for theranostic radionuclides makes the material-saving approach and recovery essential for the radiopharmaceutical field.

Synthesis and Characterization of Manganese Dithiocarbamate Complexes: New Evidence of Dioxygen Activation.

(1) Background: Metal dithiocarbamate compounds have long been the subject of research due to their ease of formation, excellent properties and potential applications. However, manganese complexes with dithiocarbamates, to our knowledge, have never been used for medical imaging applications. With the aim of developing a new class of mononuclear manganese(II)-based agents for molecular imaging applications, we performed a specific investigation into the synthesis of mononuclear bis-substituted Mn(II) complexes with dithiocarbamate ligands.

Correction: Uccelli, L., et al. Therapeutic Radiometals: Worldwide Scientific Literature Trend Analysis (2008⁻2018). 2019, , 640.

The authors wish to make the following corrections to their paper [...

Therapeutic Radiometals: Worldwide Scientific Literature Trend Analysis (2008⁻2018).

Academic journals have published a large number of papers in the therapeutic nuclear medicine (NM) research field in the last 10 years. Despite this, a literature analysis has never before been made to point out the research interest in therapeutic radionuclides (RNs). For this reason, the present study aims specifically to analyze the research output on therapeutic radiometals from 2008 to 2018, with intent to quantify and identify global trends in scientific literature and emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of this research field.

Interdisciplinary Tasks in the Cyclotron Production of Radiometals for Medical Applications. The Case of Sc as Example.

The growing number of cyclotrons of different sizes installed in the territory has given a strong impulse to the production of conventional and emerging radionuclides for medical applications. In particular, the great advantage of using medical cyclotrons is the possibility to produce on-site, when needed (on-demand), with medical radionuclides of interest encouraging the personalized medicine approach. Radiometals satisfy the ideal characteristics that radionuclides should have for routine employment in nuclear medicine, especially since they have a robust chemistry suitable to synthetize stable in vivo radiopharmaceuticals with high radiochemical yields.

Perspectives on the Use of Liquid Extraction for Radioisotope Purification.

The reliable and efficient production of radioisotopes for diagnosis and therapy is becoming an increasingly important capability, due to their demonstrated utility in Nuclear Medicine applications. Starting from the first processes involving the separation of Tc from irradiated materials, several methods and concepts have been developed to selectively extract the radioisotopes of interest. Even though the initial methods were based on liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) approaches, the perceived difficulty in automating such processes has slowly moved the focus towards resin separation methods, whose basic chemical principles are often similar to the LLE ones in terms of chelators and phases.

LARAMED: A Laboratory for Radioisotopes of Medical Interest.

The widespread availability of novel radioactive isotopes showing nuclear characteristics suitable for diagnostic and therapeutic applications in nuclear medicine (NM) has experienced a great development in the last years, particularly as a result of key advancements of cyclotron-based radioisotope production technologies. At Legnaro National Laboratories of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (LNL-INFN), Italy, a 70-MeV high current cyclotron has been recently installed. This cyclotron will be dedicated not only to pursuing fundamental nuclear physics studies, but also to research related to other scientific fields with an emphasis on medical applications.

Automated Synthesis of 68Ga-DOTA-TOC with a Cationic Purification System: Evaluation of Methodological and Technical Aspects in Routine Preparations.

Background And Objective: Gallium-68 is a PET isotope available in each nuclear medicine departments, even those not equipped with a cyclotron, since it is easily obtained by eluting compact and transportable generator system. The preparation of Ga-68 DOTA-labeled compounds is performed by remotely controlled automated systems developed in order to ensure production efficiency, reproducibility of the results, fast reaction time, to facilitate the synthesis and minimize the radiation exposure. Many automatic synthesis systems are available on the radiopharmaceutical market, however, they requires some technical adaptations for routine use.

Influence of Storage Temperature on Radiochemical Purity of Tc-Radiopharmaceuticals.

The influence of effective room temperature on the radiochemical purity of Tc-radiopharmaceuticals was reported. This study was born from the observation that in the isolators used for the preparation of the Tc-radiopharmaceuticals the temperatures can be higher than those reported in the commercial illustrative leaflets of the kits. This is due, in particular, to the small size of the work area, the presence of instruments for heating, the continuous activation of air filtration, in addition to the fact that the environment of the isolator used for the Tc-radiopharmaceuticals preparation and storage is completely isolated and not conditioned.

Monoclonal Antibodies Radiolabeling with Rhenium-188 for Radioimmunotherapy.

Rhenium-188, obtained from an alumina-based tungsten-188/rhenium-188 generator, is actually considered a useful candidate for labeling biomolecules such as antibodies, antibody fragments, peptides, and DNAs for radiotherapy. There is a widespread interest in the availability of labeling procedures that allow obtaining Re-labeled radiopharmaceuticals for various therapeutic applications, in particular for the rhenium attachment to tumor-specific monoclonal antibodies (Mo)Abs for immunotherapy. Different approaches have been developed in order to obtain Re-radioimmunoconjugates in high radiochemical purity starting from the generator eluted [Re]ReO.

Psychostimulant Effect of the Synthetic Cannabinoid JWH-018 and AKB48: Behavioral, Neurochemical, and Dopamine Transporter Scan Imaging Studies in Mice.

JWH-018 and AKB48 are two synthetic cannabinoids (SCBs) belonging to different structural classes and illegally marketed as incense, herbal preparations, or chemical supply for theirs psychoactive cannabis-like effects. Clinical reports from emergency room reported psychomotor agitation as one of the most frequent effects in people assuming SCBs. This study aimed to investigate the psychostimulant properties of JWH-018 and AKB48 in male CD-1 mice and to compare their behavioral and biochemical effects with those caused by cocaine and amphetamine.

Recent achievements in Tc-99m radiopharmaceutical direct production by medical cyclotrons.

Tc is the most commonly used radionuclide in the field of diagnostic imaging, a noninvasive method intended to diagnose a disease, assess the disease state and monitor the effects of treatments. Annually, the use of Tc, covers about 85% of nuclear medicine applications. This isotope releases gamma rays at about the same wavelength as conventional X-ray diagnostic equipment, and owing to its short half-life (t = 6 h) is ideal for diagnostic nuclear imaging.

Re(V) Nitrido Radiopharmaceuticals for Radionuclide Therapy.

The favorable nuclear properties of rhenium-188 for therapeutic application are described, together with new methods for the preparation of high yield and stable Re radiopharmaceuticals characterized by the presence of the nitride rhenium core in their final chemical structure. Re is readily available from an W/Re generator system and a parallelism between the general synthetic procedures applied for the preparation of nitride technetium-99m and rhenium-188 theranostics radiopharmaceuticals is reported. Although some differences between the chemical characteristics of the two metallic nitrido fragments are highlighted, it is apparent that the same general procedures developed for the labelling of biologically active molecules with technetium-99m can be applied to rhenium-188 with minor modification.

A solvent-extraction module for cyclotron production of high-purity technetium-99m.

The design and fabrication of a fully-automated, remotely controlled module for the extraction and purification of technetium-99m (Tc-99m), produced by proton bombardment of enriched Mo-100 molybdenum metallic targets in a low-energy medical cyclotron, is here described. After dissolution of the irradiated solid target in hydrogen peroxide, Tc-99m was obtained under the chemical form of TcO, in high radionuclidic and radiochemical purity, by solvent extraction with methyl ethyl ketone (MEK). The extraction process was accomplished inside a glass column-shaped vial especially designed to allow for an easy automation of the whole procedure.