Radiopharmaceuticals are known as critical radioactive agents in the modern medical field. The number of these radiolabeled compounds used for clinical purposes continues to rise rapidly around the globe each year.
What is the composition of a radiopharmaceutical? How is proper selection essential for success in clinical research, medical diagnosis, and patient treatment? Here is what to know about this specialized class of nuclear medicine.
The Main Components of Radiopharmaceuticals
The composition of a radiopharmaceutical is relatively straightforward. Each radiopharmaceutical grouping contains two components: a biologically-active molecule and an accompanying radioactive isotope with an effective half-life. Attaching a radioactive tracer to certain molecules is essential for use in applications that require active radiation.
However, the selection of the tracer molecule is where complication often lies. The molecule must follow a relevant biodistribution path for a given diagnosis or targeted treatment. After the careful selection process, a chemical reaction replaces a molecule in the atom with a radioisotope for diagnostic or therapeutic use. Healthcare professionals safely administer radiopharmaceuticals to millions of patients annually via various medical procedures.
Applications As Medicinal Products
At the core, radiopharmaceuticals are unique medicinal formations with unlimited potential for non-invasive medical purposes. Properly utilizing these carefully-controlled traces of radiation can provide critical insight into specific biological processes or cell activity within human bodies.
These radioactive agents are given in suitable dosage forms to patients by—or directly supervised under—physicians with specialized nuclear medicine training. Radiopharmaceuticals take on many forms and support researchers and medical providers through diagnosing diseases, identifying the best-suited treatments for patients, delivering precise cell-terminating radiation, and monitoring therapeutic responses.
Radiopharmaceutical Production: Radiolabeled Compounds
The latest research in radiopharmaceuticals involves using radiolabeled compounds in various clinical trials. Linking radioisotopes to molecules that target cancer or diseased cells provides alternative treatment options for patients in need.
For this reason, suppliers of radiolabeled compounds help support each stage of the drug development process with safety, synthesis, stability, analysis, purification, and documentation. From research to discovery and beyond, radiolabeling services and radiopharmaceutical solutions have the potential to save countless lives for years to come.