Prospective of ⁶⁸Ga-Radiopharmaceutical Development

Abstract

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) experienced accelerated development and has become an established method for medical research and clinical routine diagnostics on patient individualized basis. Development and availability of new radiopharmaceuticals specific for particular diseases is one of the driving forces of the expansion of clinical PET. The future development of the 68Ga-radiopharmaceuticals must be put in the context of several aspects such as role of PET in nuclear medicine, unmet medical needs, identification of new biomarkers, targets and corresponding ligands, production and availability of 68Ga, automation of the radiopharmaceutical production, progress of positron emission tomography technologies and image analysis methodologies for improved quantitation accuracy, PET radiopharmaceutical regulations as well as advances in radiopharmaceutical chemistry. The review presents the prospects of the 68Ga-based radiopharmaceutical development on the basis of the current status of these aspects as well as wide range and variety of imaging agents.

Comparative preclinical evaluation of 68Ga-NODAGA and 68Ga-HBED-CC conjugated procainamide in melanoma imaging

“…Among radionuclides used in PET, the cyclotron independent radionuclide 68 Ga offers a wellestablished chemistry for the labeling of small molar-weight biomolecules and peptides [22][23][24]. 68 Ga-labeled procainamide shows great potential for diagnosis in a variety of melanomas producing melanin pigment.…”

Siderophores for molecular imaging applications

“…Over the past decade, PET has experienced a significant increase applying a variety of positron emitting radiometals [45]. Recently, 68 Ga use in particular is showing a dramatic growth because of the applicability in labelling of diverse range of compounds and because it is obtained from a long shelf-life and relatively inexpensive 68 Ge/ 68 Ga generator system [46]. More than 30 years after the first attempts of labelling siderophores with 67 Ga [36-38, 40, 41], we evaluated the use of 68 Ga labelled siderophores for PET imaging of fungal infections [47].…”

64Cu-DOTATATE for Noninvasive Assessment of Atherosclerosis in Large Arteries and Its Correlation with Risk Factors: Head-to-Head Comparison with 68Ga-DOTATOC in 60 Patients

“…64 Cu, on the other hand, is generated on a cyclotron and has a half-life of 12.7 h. The long half-life of 64 Cu allows for early as well as late PET scanning, even the day after injection. 64 Cu has a substantially shorter positron range than 68 Ga, 1 versus 4 mm, rendering it a much better spatial resolution, but a lower positron abundance (10)(11)(12)(13)(14).…”