(Health Korea News / Lee Si-woo) The development of radioactive pharmaceuticals is heating up. Radiopharmaceuticals are especially popular in the treatment of incurable diseases such as cancer, and so far, more than 60 drugs have been approved in the United States.
According to the Korea Biotechnology Association’s review paper ‘Radiopharmaceuticals and Applications in Medicine’ published in the international academic journal Nature on January 3 this year, 67 radiopharmaceuticals are currently being used after being approved by the US FDA. 54 are for disease diagnosis and 13 are for treatment.
The 54 radiopharmaceuticals approved and used for disease diagnosis include 25 (46.3%) for tumor imaging, 11 (20.4%) for central nervous system imaging, and 8 (14.8%) for cardiovascular imaging. It is divided into seven categories, including lung imaging, liver imaging, and bone imaging.
Divided by the type of radiation detector used, 34 ‘single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)’ radiopharmaceuticals and 20 ‘positron emission tomography (PET)’ radiopharmaceuticals are in clinical use.
All 13 radiopharmaceuticals approved for treatment are used to treat cancer. Interest in cancer treatment is increasing because radiopharmaceuticals destroy the DNA of target tumor cells by emitting α-rays or β-rays.
If radiopharmaceuticals are classified by target vector, there are 54 diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals: 35 small molecules, 9 peptides, 4 antibodies, and 6 others (protein and serum albumin-based). Radiopharmaceuticals for therapeutic use (13) include 8 small molecules, 2 peptides, and 3 antibodies.
Radiopharmaceuticals are medicines that attach radioactive isotopes to medicines such as small molecules, peptides, and antibodies, and their use in disease diagnosis and treatment is expanding worldwide.
Radiopharmaceuticals can be combined with positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scans to rapidly and precisely monitor systemic disease lesions. Therefore, accurate patient stratification is possible in a non-invasive manner. In this medicine, high energy emitted by radionuclides is precisely deposited on target cells to directly induce cell death through single or double-stranded DNA breaks.
Unlike radiotherapy, which uses an external radiation source, radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) limits radiation within target cells and has little toxic effect on non-target cells, which can reduce damage to normal organs.
Above all, compared to existing treatments, a small amount of targeting vector can obtain enough radiation to achieve cell death, enabling a safe and economical treatment method. In addition, it enables visualization and identification of drug accumulation in lesions, allowing clinicians to treat diseases while viewing lesions and providing customized treatment.
Radiopharmaceutical treatment that directly damages target cells is attracting more attention in the treatment of incurable diseases that are not sensitive to current treatments.
An official from the Korea Biotechnology Association said, “Numerous studies have focused on developing new radiopharmaceuticals that target a wider range of diseases, demonstrating amazing in vivo performance,” adding, “These include high tumor uptake rate and extended retention time. “It contains favorable pharmacokinetic properties that meet clinical standards.”
Research on radiopharmaceuticals has been ongoing for at least 80 years since the development of radium-223 and iodine-131 for cancer treatment. To date, more than 60 radiopharmaceuticals have been approved by the FDA for the diagnosis or treatment of various cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, and cardiovascular diseases.
But there is still a long way to go. This is because of limitations in effectiveness and safety. To improve the efficiency of radiopharmaceutical-based diagnostics, both false-positive and false-negative diagnostic modalities must be optimized. Although therapeutics can prolong the lifespan of patients with terminal cancer, systemic toxicities such as bone marrow damage, xerostomia, and kidney damage have not been demonstrated in clinical trials. observed and may cause serious side effects.
Nevertheless, based on the overall approved radiopharmaceuticals, the industry believes that the scope for applying radionuclides in various fields is still endless.
An industry official said, “Next-generation radiopharmaceuticals will be able to improve the efficiency and biological safety of tumor diagnosis and treatment by using targeting vectors to accurately deliver radionuclides to lesions and prevent off-target deposition.” .
Copyright © Health Korea News Unauthorized reproduction and redistribution prohibited
Source: www.hkn24.com
