Chelate complexes for cancer diagnosis
Radiopharmaceutical for cancer diagnosis, created with the participation of polytechnics, will enter the preclinical testing stage in the fall
Scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University together with their colleagues from the Tomsk Research Institute of Oncology and the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences have created a radiopharmaceutical for the accurate diagnosis of oncological diseases labeled with the technetium-99 isotope. In autumn, the project will enter the stage of preclinical research.
Chemists of the TPU Institute of Natural Resources and specialists of the Institute of Physics and Technology are working on the project. The radiopharmaceutical itself has a complex structure. The framework protein DARPin is based on, a chelate complex is attached to it, which binds the protein to the radioactive isotope technetium-99. It should be noted that TPU has developed a waste-free technology for the production of this most popular isotope in medical diagnostics.
"There is a "lock" on the cancer cell in the form of receptors, and the protein in the preparation is the key to the receptors. In order not to lose this key in the mass of other similar keys, it needs to be marked. This requires chelate complexes.
Physicists sorb an isotope of technetium onto this marker, which is easily fixed using gamma cameras. This structure of the radiopharmaceutical allows you to very accurately determine the size of the tumor and its location. This is especially important in the diagnosis of small—cell cancers, when cancer cells are scattered throughout the affected organ," says Mehman Yusubov, Head of the Department of Technology of Organic Substances and Polymer Materials of TPU.
In 2017, polytechnics patented a technique for obtaining chelate complexes.
"We have proposed our own way of obtaining chelate complexes. We use iodine as one of the reagents.
In general, the method of obtaining these complexes due to iodine is more effective, since the yield of the final product increases and the number of stages for its production is reduced. In addition, the technique is more economically advantageous compared to existing ones due to the use of cheap and environmentally friendly reagents," Mehman Yusubov notes.
According to the scientist, in the future this drug can be used not only for the diagnosis of oncological diseases, but also for their treatment. However, this requires more detailed research.
We should add that this network project to create a radiopharmaceutical received support under the Federal Target Program "Development of the pharmaceutical and medical industry of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020 and beyond". The stage of preclinical studies should be completed in 2019.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru 25.05.2017