Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Year in Review
  • Published:

Heavy-element chemistry

Harnessing the power of f-block elements in radiopharmaceuticals

Nature Reviews Chemistry (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Radiopharmaceuticals are becoming an essential tool in the fight against cancer, and the field has been diversified with the investigation of f-block elements over the past decade. Here we discuss the highlights in 2023 research leading the charge in utilizing f-block elements in innovative ways, changing how we treat these diseases.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: A typical radiotheranostic treatment regime (therapy + diagnostic = theranostic) in a tumour mouse model.

References

  1. Goldsmith, S. J. Targeted radionuclide therapy: A historical and personal review. Semin. Nucl. Med. 50, 87–97 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Amoroso, A. J., Fallis, I. A. & Pope, S. J. A. Chelating agents for radiolanthanides: Applications to imaging and therapy. Coord. Chem. Rev. 340, 198–219 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Meyer, C. et al. Tandem isotope therapy with 225Ac- and 177Lu-PSMA-617 in a murine model of prostate cancer. J. Nucl. Med. 64, 1772–1778 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Tschan, V. J. et al. Albumin-binding and conventional PSMA ligands in combination with 161Tb: Biodistribution, dosimetry, and preclinical therapy. J. Nucl. Med. 64, 1625–1631 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Müller, C. et al. Terbium-161 for PSMA-targeted radionuclide therapy of prostate cancer. Eur. J. Nucl. Med. Mol. Imaging 46, 1919–1930 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Kurtz, K. et al. Engineering CAR-T cells for radiohapten capture in imaging and radioimmunotherapy applications. Theranostics 13, 5469–5482 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Gefen, T. et al. The effect of haptens on protein-carrier immunogenicity. Immunology 144, 116–126 (2015).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the support of the Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division, Heavy Element Chemistry Program at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) under contract DE-AC02-05CH11231.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Heavy Element Chemistry, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Alex Rigby & Trevor Arino

  2. Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Trevor Arino

Authors
  1. Alex Rigby
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Trevor Arino
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alex Rigby.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rigby, A., Arino, T. Harnessing the power of f-block elements in radiopharmaceuticals. Nat Rev Chem (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-024-00601-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-024-00601-6

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing