Monoclonal Antibodies and Immuno-PET Imaging: An Overview

Radiopharmaceuticals are radioactive medicines used for imaging and/or therapeutic purposes, consisting of radionuclidic and pharmaceutical parts. While PET and SPECT methods are used for imaging purposes, immuno-PET imaging method has gained popularity, recently. Immuno-PET imaging method, is a combination of PET radionuclides and biomolecules, especially monoclonal antibodies (mAb), proteins, peptides, are frequently used for the imaging of different types of cancer. Radionuclides with long half-lives are generally used in immuno-PET imaging. Long biological half-lives of mAbs is the most important reason to be preferred for immuno-PET imaging. Today, Zirconium-89 (Zr-89), Iodine-124 (I-124) with long half-lives and Copper-64 (Cu-64) and Yttrium-86 (Y-86) radionuclides with relatively long half-lives are preferred in immuno-PET imaging. In this article, studies on Zr-89, Cu-64, I-124 and Y-86-labeled mAbs with long half-life and clinical and preclinical studies were reviewed. Also, comparison of these 4 radionuclides, which are frequently used in the labelling of biomolecules (particularly mAbs) with is included.