AAPS’ BioIsotopes™ Project — Building on Canada’s Leading Role in Medical Isotopes
The recent commissioning of AAPS’ Isotope Separator Test Facility signaled a major step towards developing a new method for producing high value isotopes for use in medical imaging and targeted cancer therapies.
The BioIsotopes™ project is another example of how AAPS leverages the leading, multi-disciplinary expertise at TRIUMF. For many years, the Nuclear Medicine Division at TRIUMF has focused on the diagnostic power of medical isotopes, but there has been a longstanding interest in matched pair isotopes—where an isotope suitable for imaging and diagnosis is first used, followed by a second isotope which delivers a highly targeted therapeutic radiation dose directly to cancer cells. Systemic Targeted Radionuclide Therapies (STaRT), such as radioimmunotherapy, represent a relatively new class of treatments that combine the cancer-killing power of radiation therapy with precise molecular delivery. Essentially, a radioisotope is linked to a protein that selectively binds to cancer cells. This approach ensures that tumor cells receive a high dose of radiation, while minimizing unwanted damage to normal tissue. Unfortunately, adoption rates and new drug development have been slowed, in part, due to the limited selection of radioisotopes available in suitably high isotopic purity.
Innovation
AAPS is developing a novel approach to help fill the need for high-purity medical isotopes. The electromagnetic isotope processing technology is designed to purify isotopes with properties that could increase the efficacy of radiopharmaceuticals, while reducing their side effects.
Commercial Applications
Drug developers have had their eye on several promising isotopes for years, but there has not been a way to produce them in sufficient isotopic purity. For example, Rhenium-186 is of great interest to radiopharmaceutical developers because its chemistry is almost identical to the most widely used diagnostic medical isotope, technetium-99m (Tc-99m) and its decay properties would make it ideal as a general-purpose isotope for many of the most promising targeted therapies being developed today. The successful development of the BioIsotopes technology would allow Re-186 to be a therapeutic match Tc-99m.
Collaborators
Initial scientific and technical work was supported by TRIUMF and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council ‘Idea to Innovation Program’. AAPS gratefully acknowledges the support of our project collaborators and their respective institutions:
- Dr. Thomas J. Ruth, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, TRIUMF & BC Cancer Agency
- Dr. John M. D’Auria, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Simon Fraser University
- Dr. Suzanne Lapi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine
- Dr. Alan Ketring, Ph.D., Associate Director R&D, University of Missouri Research Reactor Center (MURR®)
- Dr. Jaime Simón, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, IsoTherapeutics Group, LLC
- Dr. Morgan Dehnel, Ph.D., President, D-Pace
Progress
A key technical milestone was reached this past year with the successful commissioning of the Isotope Separator Test Facility, which was purpose-built to develop and demonstrate ion sources capable of efficiently producing the high intensity metal ion beams required to make this new method of isotope processing commercially viable.
Moving Forward
AAPS and our collaborators plan to progressively validate key aspects of the BioIsotopes production approach for several isotopes.
