Process for producing gallium-68 through the irradiation of a solution target

Abstract

The present invention relates to a process for purifying and concentrating 68Ga isotope produced by the irradiation with an accelerated particle beam of a 68Zn target in solution. The process according to the invention allows for the production of pure and concentrated 68Ga isotope in hydrochloric acid solution. The present invention also relates to a disposable cassette suitable to perform the steps of purification and concentration of the process.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]The present invention relates generally to the field of radiopharmaceutical production. More particularly, the present invention relates to a process for the production of 68Gallium radioisotope from a suitable solution target irradiated by an accelerated particle beam.[0002]The invention also relates to a disposable cartridge for purifying and concentrating the Gallium-68 produced by the irradiation of a isotopically enriched Zinc solution target by an accelerated particle beam.DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART[0003]Gallium-68 (68Ga) is of special interest for the production of Ga-radiolabelled compounds used as tracer molecules in positron emission tomography (PET) imaging technique. 68Ga forms stable complexes with chelating agents, like DOTA (1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid), NOTA (1,4,7-triazacyclononane-1,4,7-triacetic acid) and HBED-CC (N,N′-bis-[2-hydroxy-5-(carboxyethyl)benzyl]ethylenediamine-N,N′-diaceticacid) for example. 68Gallium t...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides an efficient and reliable process for producing and purifying 68Ga isotope from a solution containing zinc irradiated by an accelerated particle beam. The process involves diluting the irradiated target solution with water to improve the retention of 68Gallium on the strong cation exchanger, resulting in a significantly increased yield of the process. The purified and recovered 68Ga isotope has a high yield, low contaminants concentration, and a disposable cassette for easy implementation of the purification and concentration process.

Problems solved by technology

Unfortunately, 68Ge / 68Ga generators can only produce small quantities of 68Ga per elution, suffer from limited lifetime and present the risk of contaminating the final preparation with the long-lived parent nuclide 68Ge.

The process involves many time consuming steps, requires expensive hardware including solid targets and special systems to transport the irradiated target from cyclotron to the processing area and poses radioprotection issues of handling the materials after irradiation as well as liquid waste handling.

This process is prone to contamination by metallic ions that can compromise the purification of the 68Ga and subsequent labeling reaction.

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