Nuclear Medicine & Radiation Therapy

Rhenium Radioisotopes in Medicine: Manufacture and Uses

Abstract

Licia Uccelli*

The diagnosis and treatment of disease make use of radioisotopes of a wide variety of elements, the majority of which are metals, in nuclear medicine. A chelator that effectively forms thermodynamically and kinetically stable complexes with the metal ions' radioisotopes, or radiometals, is necessary for these applications. Additionally, the chelator attaches to a biological targeting vector to locate diseased tissues. While numerous chelators that are suitable for small radiometals have been developed, chelators that are effective for large radiometals are much less common. In this Report, we discuss recent developments in the development of ligands for the chelation of large radiometals, which have potential applications in nuclear medicine.