INTRODUCTION

RADIOPHARMACY?
YES !!!

no !!!
 radiopharmaceuticals - how radionuclide bind target molecule

Radiopharmaceutical Radionuclide

( high specific target molecule / ligand)

OPTIMAL SELECTION OF LIGAND AND ADEQUATE NUCLIDES - CRITICAL

STEPS FOR SUCCESSFUL DIAGNOSIS AND / OR THERAPY

Binding and localization in organs or lesions - range of processes that are part of
the ADME principles
 Radionuclide – gamma emitter
Radiopharmaceutical

( high specific target molecule / ligand)

imaging

Radionuclide – beta/alpha emitter

Radiopharmaceutical
Therapy

( high specific target molecule / ligand)

Role of radiopharmaceuticals in nuclear medicine
RADIOPHARMACY

(Arg-Pro-Lys-Pro-Gln-Gln-Phe-Phe-Gly-Leu-Met-NH-R)
Literature
 Definition: Radiopharmacy

Radiopharmacy is a specialty area of pharmacy

practice dedicated to the compounding and
dispensing of radioactive materials for use in
nuclear medicine procedures.

Radiopharmacy = Nuclear Pharmacy

 Becquerel & the discovery of radiations:

Radioactivity was first discovered

in 1896 by the French scientist
Henri Becquerel.

The discovery of radioactivity started while

he was working on phosphorescent
materials.
He wrapped a photographic plate in black paper
and placed various phosphorescent salts on it.

All results were negative until he used

uranium salts.
The result with these compounds was
a deep blackening of the plate.
These radiations were called
Becquerel Rays.
Clearly there was a form of radiation
that could pass through paper that
was causing the plate to become
black.
For the discovery of spontaneous radiation Becquerel was
awarded half of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903, the
other half being given to Pierre and Marie Curie for their
study of the Becquerel radiation and for founding additional
radioactive elements
Over the past 3 decades, the discipline of radiopharmacy, or
radiopharmacy, has become highly specialized and
contributed positively to the practice of nuclear medicine.

Nuclear pharmacy, the first specialty in pharmacy recognized

(in 1978) by the Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties,
focuses on the safe and effective use of radioactive drugs or
radiopharmaceuticals.
 Applications of
Radiopharmaceuticals

Diagnostic Therapeutic

Well Established Evolving

More than 100 radiopharmaceutical
products are available, with the largest
proportion of these having diagnostic
use:
Cardiology (myocardial perfusion)

Oncology (tumor imaging and localization)

Neurology (cerebral perfusion)

Historically, nuclear medicine has been
well established as a therapeutic
modality for:
Thyroid cancer,

Graves' disease,

Hyperthyroidism

Bone pain palliation associated with skeletal metastasis.

Recent
radiopharmaceuticals:

131Ior 125I labeled MIBG [m-

iodobenzylguanidinel) are
being used to treat
pheochromocytoma and
neuroblastoma. Adrenal Glands

Radiolabeled somatostatin
analogues are used for the
treatment of neuroendocrine
tumors
Ongoing investigative studies:
Primary bone cancers

Ovarian cancer

Using innovative means (e.g., targeting agents) to deliver the drug to the
tumor.
Radiopharmaceuticals have been used
as tracers of physiologic processes.

Advantage:
Allows non-invasive external monitoring or targeted therapeutic irradiation
with very little effect on the biologic processes in the body.
Site-specific targeting:
Allows the physician to treat widely disseminated diseases.

Ideally, the radiopharmaceutical will cause

minimal or tolerable damage to healthy, adjacent tissue
Factors to be determined for optimum
delivery:
Residence time of radioactivity at the target site.

In vivo catabolism and metabolism of the drug.

Optimization of relative rates of radiolabeled drug or drug metabolite

clearance from the target site
Radionuclides:
A radionuclide is an atom with an unstable nucleus (Same number of
protons but varying numbers of neutrons).

Their nuclei undergo rearrangement while changing to a stable state, and

energy is given off.

Radioactivity