Targeted Radiopharmaceuticals Innovation and Translation

       Radioactive therapy is one of the most important clinical treatments for malignant tumors. Radiopharmaceuticals while killing cancer cells would also damage healthy cells, leading to serious side effects and suboptimal treatment efficacy. Site-specific release of radiopharmaceuticals via microparticles and molecular targeting can reduce their systemic toxicity and improve anti-tumor efficacy. For instance, Y-90 radioactive microparticles (TheraSpheres and SIR-Spheres) and Ho-166 PLA microparticlesQuiremSphereshave been approved by the authorities for the treatment of advanced liver tumors. PSMA-targeted Lu-177PSMA-617has been developed to effectively treat metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). The State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection has recently established the Targeted Radiopharmaceuticals Innovation and Translation Center to carry out basic and translational research on targeted radiopharmaceuticals. We are going to develop targeted polymeric radiopharmaceuticals for treating castrate-resistant prostate cancer, radioactive biodegradable microparticles for specific radioactive therapy of advanced liver tumors and post-surgery treatment of glioblastoma, and novel brain-targeting boron agents for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) of glioblastoma. Moreover, we will combine radioactive therapy with immunotherapy to achieve effective treatment of different tumors such as liver tumor, glioblastoma and breast cancer.


 

  

Representative Papers

1)    X.L. Gu, Z.H. Zhu, Y.H. Wei, G.L. Wang, F.H. Meng, Z.Y. Zhong*, and C. Deng*, Nano-Agents Based on Poly(ethylene glycol)-b-Poly(L-thyroxine) Block Copolypeptide for Enhanced Dual-Modality Imaging and Targeted Tumor Radiotherapy, Small 2019, 15, 1902577.

2)    J.S. Cao, Y.H. Wei, Y.X. Zhang, G.L. Wang*, X. Ji, and Z.Y. Zhong*, Iodine-rich polymersomes enable versatile SPECT/CT imaging and potent radioisotope therapy for tumor in vivo, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2019, 11, 18953-18959.

3)    Y. Zou, Y.H. Wei, G.L. Wang, F.H. Meng*, M.Y. Gao, G. Storm, and Z.Y. Zhong*, Nano-Polymersomes with an Ultrahigh Iodine Content for High-Performance X-Ray Computed Tomography Imaging In Vivo, Adv. Mater. 2017, 29, 1603997.