Progress in the Production, Labeling of Novel Solid Target Zirconium-89 and its Preliminary Application in the Preclinical

Recently, positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) has expanded to become a routine diagnostic study of particular importance in oncology in treatment evaluation and management. In particle, immuno-PET which uses positron nuclide labeled antibodies, antibody fragments, and peptides for the in vivo molecular imaging is one of the most important methods for selecting effective targeted therapy patients. Due to its longer half-life meeting with the body clearance rate of antibodies, positron radionuclide zirconium-89(⁸⁹Zr) has become the ideal nuclide for immuno-PET. The current most common route to produce ⁸⁹Zr is via cyclotron through the ⁸⁹Y(p,n)⁸⁹Zr nuclear reaction using natural abundance yttrium-89(⁸⁹Y) foil. Meanwhile, higher activity recovery method for ⁸⁹Zr using the hydroxamate resin purification has become the standardized method in most paper reports. As DFO is currently the most promising chelator for ⁸⁹Zr, so it is important to select an adequate conjugation of DFO to an antibody. Over the last years, several ⁸⁹Zr labeled antibodies directed against different tumor types have been evaluated in preclinical studies. Furthermore, ⁸⁹Zr can also be used to prepare nanoparticles and microspheres. It has become more and more useful in the clinical application. However, in China, there is no company or institute can provide nuclide ⁸⁹Zr continually and steadily. So it is very necessary and important to carry out series of researches on the production, purification and conjugation strategies of ⁸⁹Zr. Accordingly, ⁸⁹Zr based immunoPET in the preclinical oncology studies will be developed and apply to clinical practice gradually. In this paper, the solid target production methods and isolation of ⁸⁹Zr are investigated. The antibodies labeling methods and the preclinical application value in cancer are discussed.