Radioactive substances in medicine 3 Flashcards
What is PET
- Positron Emission Tomography
What are the radionuclides used in PET scanning and half lives
- 11C - 20 min
- 13N - 10 min
- 15O - 2 min
- 18F - 110 min
Describe radionuclides used in PET
- beta + emitting isotopes with short half-lives
- Cyclotron made
Describe how PET works
- Radio nuclei emits a beta+ which meets an electron and produces 2 gamma rays 180 degrees from each other
Describe 18F-FDG
- Taken up by cells and retained by tissues with high metabolic activity (diseased) such as the brain or most types of malignant tumours
- But low specificity
Describe production of PET tracers
- Can be produced in a cyclotron or in a generator
- During synthesis a radionuclide may be attached to a targeting molecule (antibody, protein, peptide etc) to develop an imaging agent
- After administration the imaging agent gravitates to the target
- The positrons released from the target travel in the tissue until they meet their anti-particle i.e. electron and a coincidence happens causing release of gamma rays
- PET camera is able to detect these gamma-rays and with mathematical image construction a 3D image is received
What is a difference between cyclotron and generator
- Cyclotron is relatively large
- Generator quite small
What is a positron mean free path
- Average distance travelled by this moving particle between successive collisions modifying its direction or energy/other properties
What happens after injection of a tracer compound labelled with PET isotope into a subject
- The subject is placed within the field of view of a number of detectors capable of registering incident gamma rays
- The radionuclide in the radiotracer decays and the resulting positron subsequently annihilate on contact with electrons after travelling a short distance within the body
Describe the path of positrons
- As they travel through human tissue they give up kinetic energy by Couloumb interactions with electrons
- Mass is about the same as electrons so may undergo large deviations in direction with each interaction
- Once at thermal energy they interact with electrons by annihilation which produces two photons (gamma rays) which are detected
Describe detection in PET
- PET camera detectors generate a timed pulse when it registers an incident photon
- Detector electronics are linked so two detection events (pulses) unambiguously occurring within a certain time window may be called a coincident and this be determined to have come from the same annihilation
- These events can be stored in arrays corresponding to projections through the patient and reconstructed using tomographic techniques
- Resulting images show tracer distribution throughout the body of the subject
What type of isotopes tend to decay by positron emission
- Proton-rich
- Proton in nucleus decays to a neutron, positron, and a neutrino
- Daughter isotope has an atomic number one less than the parent
Why are coincident gamma rays good
- No need for a physical collimator as electronic collimation
- Electronic collimation has improved sensitivity and improved uniformity of the point source response function
- For physical collimators, directional info is gained by preventing photons which are not normal or nearly normal to the collimator face from falling on the detector
- In electronic collimation, these photons may be detected and used as signal- increased sensitivity
- This means typical realisable image resolution in PET is around 5-10 mm compared to SPECT which is 15-20 mm- only v large tumours
- Resolution of reconstructed PET images is more uniform than SPECT
- PET is superior to SPECT resolution wise and significantly superior to MRI or CT
What is radiolabelling
- The application of known synthetic methods to target molecules in which at least one atom is present as an isotope other than its naturally most abundant one
- Molecules that contain such an isotope are referred to being labelled because such isotopically distinct atoms serve to mark the molecule denoted a marker for later detection
What are the most useful compounds in PET
- [18F]FDG (Fluorodeoxyglucose)- metabolic imaging
- 13NH3 - blood flow
- 15O2, H2 15O (H2O)- blood flow
- 82Rb-Chloride- myocardial perfusion- accumulates in heart muscle
What is most common radiotracer
1.[18F]FDG (18Fluorodeoxyglucose)
2. 95% of all used
How is 18
- H218O + p+ –> 18F- + 2H+ + 1n
- 18F- is absorbed on anion exchange column
- Add [crypt-2,2,2] + K2CO3 in MeCN to trap 18F
- Then added to glucose with OAc groups
- THen NaOH, H2O to produce 18FDG
- 18F decays to 18O and subsequently glucose emerges as the main reaction product
Give advantages of [18F]FDG
- Convenient diagnostic radiotracer as remains trapped in the tumour
- Fluorination means it cannot undergo glycolysis
- Can be detected by PET scanner
- It can get phosphorylated by hexokinase as normal glucose but cannot be further metabolised so is trapped
What are disadvantages of [18F]FDG
- Only cyclotron availability of 18F and short half life
- Only works as a diagnostic in PET for tumours situated in certain locations e.g. lungs
- This is due to it being highly hydrophilic so eventually excretes through bladder so abdominal tumours cannot be detected
- It crosses BBB in healthy and tumour brains so background contrast cannot be observed - too much glucose in brain
- Isn’t specific for hypoxic tumours - late stage diagnosis of large tumours
- Also high costs
What has both PET and SPECT radionuclides
- 68Gallium -PET
- 67 Ga- SPECT
Describe 68Ga and 67Ga
- Binds as Ga(III) to chelating ligands
- t1/2 = 68 mins
- PET nuclide obtained from a 68Ge generator which has lifetime of 2 years
- 68Ga has 89% decay by positron emission with positron energy of 1.899MeV
What are some ligands that are used with Ga
- Cyclen
- DOTA
- Variations of DOTA
Describe 67Ga
- SPECT radionuclide produced from cyclotron
- 78.27 h half life
Describe decay of 68Ga
- 68,31Ga –> 68,30Zn + 0,1Beta+
- Spontaneous decay, gamma rays are generated through recombination of the positron emitted with an electron
Why is Ga the isotope of choice for PET
- Short lived
- Used particularly for prostate cancer
- Large availability of gallium generators
How is 68Ga produced
- Decay product of 68,32Ge in electron capture decay process
- 68,32Ge + e- –> 68,31Ga + v + gamma
- Similar action to 99mTc generators
- Similar to ion chromatography and using a stationary phase which is either metal-free or alumina, TiO2 or SnO2 onto which 68Ge is adsorbed
- Use metal-free columns pre-packaged in these generators allowing direct labelling of Ga-68 without pre-purification, more convenient production than Tc99m.
- Mobile phase is a solvent able to elute Ga-68 (III) Typically under acidic pH
Once the isotope is eluted from the generator what happens
- Rapid coordination and stabilisation within a ligand
- This often occurs under pH control
- If targeted specifically, the entire construct accumulates in a particular part of the body of medical interest
What are the two time-critical steps in production
- Radiochemical synthesis
- Quality control and release of the formulated product for injection
Describe use of Copper radioisotopes
- Wide range of radioisotopes with potential uses for SPECT and PET imaging as well as therapy
- Can be seen as a true theranostic radionuclide
What are the different copper radioistopes and their emissions that are used in medicine
- 62Cu: beta+, 9.2 min - clean emission but short half life
- 64Cu: beta+ and beta-, 12.7 h - low percent emission
- 67Cu: beta- and gamma, 62h - clean emission
Why is it good to image hypoxia
- Major pathological process implicated in many disease processes - low Oxygen levels
- Major applications of hypoxia imaging:
- Oncology: imaging hypoxic tumours
- Cardiology: imaging hypoxic/ischaemic myocardium
- Hard to treat tumours normally if low O2 levels as activating agent is O
- 64Cu in particular used
What complex can be used to image hypoxic tumours
- Bis(Thiosemicarbazone)Cu(II) complex
- Effective for PET imaging of hypoxic zone of tumours
- R1=R2=Me
- With R1=R2=H no hypoxic activity
What are the different ligands used
- PTSM: R1=R3=H, R2=R4=Me
- ATSM: R1=R2=R3=Me, R4=H
- GTS: R1=R2=R3=R4=H
Describe acidity of Cu (I) and (II) and what that means
1 Cu(I) is soft lewis acid - Overlaps with S well
2. Cu(II) is medium to hard lewis acid - N are intermediate character
3. So stability for Cu in both oxidation states - Ensures ligands don’t fall apart before delivery of radioisotope
What is mechanism of Cu(II)(ATSM)
- First crosses cell membrane
- Then reversible redox reaction to form Cu(I)ATSM-
- Also acid controlled Cu(I)ATSM- reacts with 2H+ in reversible reaction to form Cu(I)(ATSMH2)+
- Cu(I)ATSM- and Cu(I)(ATSMH2)+ form Cu(I) + ATSMH2
- Cu(I) can then enter the metabolism
What is [64Cu][Cu(ATSM)] in clinical trials for
- Tumour hypoxia in head and neck cancers
What is problem with