Geochi RAS and NIIAF MSU: Method of obtaining the medical isotope lutetium-177

The main articles are: Nuclear medicine Nuclear medicine in Russia

2022: The method of obtaining the most important isotope for nuclear medicine is presented

On June 23, 2022, it became known that the Russian scientists they had developed a method for producing medical the lutetium-177 isotope, thanks to which drugs based on it would become more accessible. The work was carried out by the researchers Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry (GEOHI) named after V.I. Vernadsky RAS together with. Research Institute of Nuclear Physics (NIIAF) of Lomonosov Moscow State University

Senior Researcher, Laboratory of Radiochemistry, GEOHI RAS, Candidate of Chemical Sciences Andrei Kazakov. Photo: minobrnauki.gov.ru.

As reported, Lutetius-177 is one of the most famous and widely used therapeutic isotopes in nuclear medicine as of June 2022. It is obtained by irradiating targets in a reactor or on a cyclotron, but the growing global demand for this isotope forces us to look for other production routes.

Chemists of GEOHI RAS, together with physicists of NIIAF Moscow State University, developed and tested a method for producing lutetium-177 by a photonuclear method, including irradiation of hafnium on an electron accelerator.

This is a method that made it possible to quickly and completely separate the isotope accumulated in ultra-fine quantities from 16 grams of irradiated hafnium oxide and impurities of other elements formed during irradiation. According to scientists, the proper degree of purification is confirmed by modern research methods, and the achieved purity will allow the use of the isolated isotope in medicine. In addition, the method makes it possible to regenerate expensive target material, which can subsequently be re-irradiated to obtain other doses of the isotope.

During the production of lutetium-177 in reactors or on cyclotrons, an impurity of a long-lived isomer - the isotope lutetium-177m - is always formed. It is developed in very small quantities, but can still harm patients. The scientific team recorded the spectra isolated by this lutetium-177 method for 7 months and for the first time accurately determined the isomer content in the photonuclear production of lutetium-177. Thus, it was found that the amount of isomer in this case is one of the lowest of all methods.

Thus, the method developed at GEOHI RAS and NIIAF MSU will make it possible to regularly obtain and release lutetium-177 using the photonuclear method, i.e., when irradiated on electron accelerators, which will make drugs based on it more accessible.

The method is definitely promising for the development of lutetium-177 for preclinical studies (where a lot of activity is not needed), since it is cheap to develop, easy to isolate, the content of the harmful isomer of lutetium-177m is extremely small, and the expensive target material can be regenerated and reused as many times as you like. Now, on almost any electron accelerators, it is possible to develop and easily isolate lutetium-177 for preclinical experiments - to develop drugs based on it, to study their resistance in biological environments and in the body of laboratory animals when injected into the blood, which in one way or another will lead to the expansion of the range of existing radiopharmaceuticals based on this isotope. told Andrei Kazakov, Senior Researcher, Laboratory of Radiochemistry, GEOHI RAS, Candidate of Chemical Sciences

The study was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation. A scientific article is published in the journal Molecules^[1].

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