Radiopharmaceutical Sciences

Clinical Nuclear Medicine, 2nd ed., Chapter 2 Radiopharmaceutical Sciences
Abstract: Chapter 2 Radiopharmaceutical Sciences
Chapter 2 elucidates the field Radiopharmaceutical Sciences from the perspective of its clinical relevance. Radiopharmaceutical Sciences summarize all scientific aspects comprising chemistry, physics and biology/pharmacology that deal with incorporating a suitable radionuclide into a pharmaceutical or other biologically active molecule or molecular entity. The resulting radiopharmaceuticals are used in Nuclear Medicine applications both for diagnosis [meaning non-invasive scintigraphic imaging] and for internal radiotherapy. Internal radiotherapy is nowadays called radioligand therapy (RLT) or endoradiotherapy and altogether is summarized under the term radiothera(g)nostics.
To transfer Radiopharmaceutical Sciences into Clinical Nuclear Medicine first of all radionuclides with corresponding decay characteristics are demanded making these suitable for diagnostic or therapeutic applications. Depending on the short physical half-lives of the radionuclides fast and efficient radiolabeling strategies are required that can be also transferred into the GMP-compliant production of radiopharmaceuticals.
The major challenges in the development of a new radiopharmaceuticals include i.a. the identification of an adequate ligand that specifically binds to the biological target of interest, the chemical modification of the ligand to enable radiolabeling while preserving the binding affinity to the biological target, and the translation of the preclinical evaluations into first in-human studies.
In summary this chapter summarises in a concise manner the current status of clinically relevant radionuclides, SPECT and PET tracers as well as the introduced thera(g)nostic classes of radiopharmaceuticals through the eyes of eight representative radiopharmaceutical scientists.