Improved method for the direct labeling of antibodies with Tc-99m.

摘要

Antibodies and antibody fragments have been treated with stannous chloride or organic reducing agents to reduce disulfide bonds, providing sulfhydryl groups for binding reduced Tc-99m. The reduced antibody, additives and stannous salts are lyophilized. To radiolabel, sodium pertechnetate solution is added, which dissolves the protein and other reagents. The pertechnetate is reduced by the stannous ions and becomes bound to the antibody. After radiolabeling the shelf-life of the product exceeds the half-life of the radionuclide. One of the more effective additives is human serum albumin, which serves as a carrier protein, agent to protect against autoradiolysis and possibly as a transfer ligand. Many different antibodies have been labeled using this method. The most widely studied antibody is an anti-melanoma fragment which has now been used clinically in more than 1000 cases and has been proven effective for the diagnostic localization of melanoma. In summary, a single vial, one step procedure for the direct labeling of antibodies in the presence of human serum albumin has been developed, extensively characterized, and clinically validated. The method is used with murine monoclonal IgG fragments, IgM and human gamma globulin. 4 refs., 10 figs.