Radionuclide Screening and Synthesis Service

The radionuclide is an essential part of the acting part of RDC (Radionuclide Drug Conjugate), which can play a role in killing cancer cells and diagnostic imaging. Types of radionuclides are approved for application in RDC nowadays.

Radionuclides Overview

The radioactive particle is the effective part of the radiopharmaceutical, which can emit β- or α- beams to deliver radiation directly to the tumor cells. For a given chemical element, radionuclides have the same number of protons in each atom, but they have different numbers of neutrons. In theory, all chemical elements in nature can exist as radionuclides.

As the radionuclide is too small to be stable in patients, it can be chelated with antibodies, small molecules, and peptides to maintain stability. A myriad of radionuclides has been conjugated with ligand applied for clinical research. The radionuclide in RDC works as the cell-damaging tool and the diagnostic tool imaging by PET or SPECT. There are three types of radionuclides that are most commonly used in RDC.

Three Types of Radionuclides

Alpha Particle	Beta Particle	Gamma Particle
The alpha particle is the least penetrating, but it is powerful enough to damage diseased cells.	Though the beta particle can only penetrate air and paper, it is commonly used in cancer treatment.	The most penetrating gamma particle can penetrate air, paper, or thin metal, which is the reason why gamma particle is broadly used in nuclear imaging.