Cyclotron-Based Production of <sup>67</sup>Cu for Radionuclide Theranostics via the <sup>70</sup>Zn(p,α)<sup>67</sup>Cu Reaction

oleh: Santiago Andrés Brühlmann, Martin Walther, Martin Kreller, Falco Reissig, Hans-Jürgen Pietzsch, Torsten Kniess, Klaus Kopka

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2023-02-01

Deskripsi

Theranostic matched pairs of radionuclides have aroused interest during the last couple of years, and in that sense, copper is one element that has a lot to offer, and although <sup>61</sup>Cu and <sup>64</sup>Cu are slowly being established as diagnostic radionuclides for PET, the availability of the therapeutic counterpart <sup>67</sup>Cu plays a key role for further radiopharmaceutical development in the future. Until now, the <sup>67</sup>Cu shortage has not been solved; however, different production routes are being explored. This project aims at the production of no-carrier-added <sup>67</sup>Cu with high radionuclidic purity with a medical 30MeV compact cyclotron via the <sup>70</sup>Zn(p,α)<sup>67</sup>Cu reaction. With this purpose, proton irradiation of electrodeposited <sup>70</sup>Zn targets was performed followed by two-step radiochemical separation based on solid-phase extraction. Activities of up to 600MBq <sup>67</sup>Cu at end of bombardment, with radionuclidic purities over 99.5% and apparent molar activities of up to 80MBq/nmol, were quantified.