Title

Radiopharmaceuticals and radiotherapy-activated prodrugs

Abstract

Radiopharmaceuticals are heating the global pharmaceutical markets, with eight of the top ten multinational corporations already investing in this field. Its development necessitates interdisciplinary collaboration. China has previously faced bottlenecks in the radiopharmaceuticals field, with an urgent need for fundamental innovation in drug research. So, what exactly is radiopharmaceuticals, and how can we excel in its development? Additionally, since the discovery of ionized radiation, it has been applied in clinical diagnostics and treatments, mainly by leveraging the unique biological effects of radiation in the body. This raises the question: can ionized radiation regulate chemical reactions in living organisms, thereby controlling drug release or protein activation? To address these issues, our team has successfully produced medical isotopes like Ac-225 for the first time in China and has reported the radiotherapy-activated prodrugs to reduce the systematic toxicity of cancer therapy. We introduced a novel concept of targeted covalent radioligands to overcome the longstanding challenge of insufficient targeting in the field. Several nuclear medicine compounds developed by our team are now undergoing clinical trials.