RESEARCH AND PRODUCTION SECTION FOR RADIOPHARMACEUTICALS FABRICATING ON THE BASIS OF REACTOR NUCLIDES

• Tkachuk Dmitry Alekseevich;
  Telephone/fax: (812) 592-39-85.
• c.t.s. Kolobov Eugeny Anatolievich;
  Telephone: (812) 297-56-87.

General research lines

The section was formed in 2006 on the basis of sector 703.

At present the staff of section carry out works in the following areas:

• radiopharmaceutical fabrication on the basis of ^99mTc;
• development of centralized ¹⁸⁸Re extraction generator.

Radiopharmaceutical fabrication on the basis of ^99mTc

In 1993 in Radium Institute there was established regional production of technetium-99m which is a representative of radionuclides of most importance in nuclear medicine. At present the Institute annually supplies technetium-99m radiopharmaceuticals in amount above 120 curies to 21 City Radionuclide Diagnostics Centers. Potential of the unit for ^99mTc fabricating is enough to satisfy the growing needs of St.-Petersburg clinics for this radionuclide in the near future.

The molybdenum trioxide with natural isotopic composition or enriched with ⁹⁸нП isotope which accumulates ⁹⁹нП at irradiation in nuclear reactor serves as a parent product. Irradiation of molybdenum is realized in WWR-M reactor (PINF, Gatchina) and in RBMK-1000 reactor (LNPP, Sosnovy Bor). Recovery of the ^99mTc (⁹⁹нП fission product) is realized by its extracting from alkaline molybdenum solution with methyl ethyl ketone. All quality characteristics of the fabricated pharmaceutical meet the requirements of pharmacopoeia clause FSP 42-0016-2527-02.

Radiopharmaceutical fabrication on the basis of 99mTc

development of centralized ¹⁸⁸Re extraction generator

Radioisotope ¹⁸⁸Re which can be obtained as a daughter product from ¹⁸⁸W beta decay seams to be promising for application in therapeutic purposes. During several years the development of ¹⁸⁸Re extraction generator is conducted.

The generating system with a two-stage centrifugal extractor, used in ^99mфУ fabricating technology was applied after certain modifications for medical purpose ¹⁸⁸Re fabricating. Semicountercurrent centrifugal extractor developed at the RAS Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry (Moscow) was selected as an extraction device. Extraction technology allows the use of ¹⁸⁸W with comparably low specific activity that essentially decreases net cost of products. The selected extraction system allows fabrication of final product (¹⁸⁸Re) with very low content of inorganic impurities, particularly, heavy metals. In ¹⁸⁸Re solution from extraction generator can be available organic impurities which are diatomic gas molecules of MEX, the presence of which is caused by radiolysis of the extraction agent and its condensation in alkaline medium. It has been shown that with increase in activity, the content of diatomic gas molecules in extraction generator goes down that is most probably resulted from radiolysis of these compositions. On the basis of results obtained there was made a prototype of ¹⁸⁸Re extraction generator. The experiments conducted on this generator prototype have demonstrated a high efficiency of both process developed and extraction device designed. Yield of ¹⁸⁸Re has reached about 85 %. Radionuclide impurity content does not exceed 110^-5 with respect to ¹⁸⁸Re activity. Inorganic impurity content in ¹⁸⁸Re solution is only defined by purity of aqueous solutions used for ¹⁸⁸Re solubilization.

Publications

1. Zykov M.P., Romanovsky V.N., Wester D., et al. Preparation of a Ready-for-injection Radiopharmaceutical Based on MiBi Using ^99mTc from a Centralized Extraction Generator. // J. Radioan. and Nucl. Chem. - 1997. - v. 221. -No 1-2. - p. 227-229.
2. Zykov M.P., Romanovsky V.N., Wester D., et al. Use of Extraction Generator to Produce ^99mфУ Based Radiopharmaceutical. // Radiochemistry. - 2001. - v. 43. - No. 3. - p. 264-266.
3. Solin L.M., Zykov M.P., Shestakov B.I., et al. Development of Works on Medical Isotopes Fabricating at V. G. Khlopin Radium Institute. // V. G. Khlopin Radium Institute's Proceedings. - Saint-Petersburg. - 2003. - v. и. - p. 17-21.
4. Tkachuk D.A., Zykov M.P. Extraction generator of ¹⁸⁸Re.// European J. of Nuclear Medicine. - 2006. - v. 33. - supplement 2. - p. 384.
5. Filyanin б.ф., Tzivadze б.Yu., Zykov M.P., et al. Report theses: "Development and Manufacturing of the Extraction Centrifugal Generators and Their Use in Nuclear Medicine for Fabrication Radioisotopes". The 6-th International Conference "Nuclear and Radiation Physics, July 4-6, 2007, Almaty" //Almaty, Nuclear Physics Institute, 2007, p. 637-638.