Abstract:
Iodine-124 (
124I) is an isotope for positron as well as unique chemical properties and convenient halflife of 4.2 days. Its modes of decay are 74.4% electron captureand 25.6% positron emission. Until recently,
124I is not considered to be an attractive isotope for medical application owing to its complex radioactive decay scheme and the high-energy gamma rays.
124I can be made by numerous nuclear reactions via a cyclotron. The most common starting material is
124Te and
124I that can decay to
124Te.
124I as sodium iodine form can be used to image the thyroid and corresponding tumor using positron emission tomography (PET) directly. The
124I nuclide can be chemically bonded to a pharmaceutical to form a positron-emitting radiopharmaceutical. Radioiodination of
124I can be efficiency attached to small molecular, peptide or antibody within radiochemistry labs. Nowadays, due to the increasing application of PET in medical oncology, pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism,
124I-labeled radiopharmaceuticals are now becoming one of the most useful tools for PET imaging.
124I-labeled monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are being used for clinical immuno-PET. Among them,
124I-cG250 accurately identifies clear-cell renal carcinoma attracting clinical attentions. Based on those progress, this review outlined the physical property, production and application of
124I in PET molecular imaging.