title: Preparation of 166Ho-oxine-lipiodol and its preliminary bioevaluation for the potential application in therapy of liver cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Intra-arterial administration of beta-emitting radionuclides in the form of suitable radiopharmaceuticals is one of the promising modalities for the treatment of liver cancer. Ho [T1/2=26.9 h, Ebeta(max)=1.85 MeV, Egamma=81 keV (6.4%)] could be envisaged as an attractive radionuclide for the use in liver cancer therapy owing to its high-energy beta-emission, short half-life and feasibility of its production with adequately high specific activity and radionuclidic purity using moderate flux reactors. Lipiodol is chosen as the vehicle to deliver localized doses of ionizing radiation to liver cancer cells after intra-arterial hepatic infusion as it is selectively retained in the vascular periphery of the proliferating cells.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ho was produced by thermal neutron bombardment on a natural Ho2O3 target at a flux of approximately 6 x 10 n/cm.s for 7 days. Radiolabelled lipiodol was prepared by dispersing the Ho-oxine complex in lipiodol. The biological behaviour of Ho-oxine-lipiodol was studied by biodistribution and imaging studies in normal Wistar rats.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ho was produced with a specific activity of 9.25-11.10 TBq/g and radionuclidic purity of approximately 100%. The Ho-labelled oxine complex was prepared in high yield (approximately 97%). Approximately, 95% of the Ho activity was dispersed in lipiodol within 30 min. The resulting radiolabelled preparation was found to exhibit good stability in physiological saline and human serum up to 3 days. The biodistribution and imaging studies revealed satisfactory hepatic retention (88.43+/-2.85% of injected activity after 2 days) with insignificant uptake in any other major organ/tissue except skeleton (6.44+/-1.07% at 2 days postinjection).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Ho-oxine-lipiodol preparation exhibited promising features in preliminary studies and warrants further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Radiopharmaceuticals Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Tapas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Das
authors.forename: Sudipta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chakraborty
authors.forename: Haladhar D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Sarma
authors.forename: Meera
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Venkatesh
authors.forename: Sharmila
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Banerjee
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D006695:Holmium; D007459:Iodized Oil / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D007553:Isotope Labeling; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy; D015125:Oxyquinoline / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D011868:Radioisotopes; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D014018:Tissue Distribution
chemical_list: C542516:(166)Ho-oxine-lipiodol; D011868:Radioisotopes; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015125:Oxyquinoline; D007459:Iodized Oil; D006695:Holmium