A Center for Design and Synthesis of New Anticancer Drugs will be established at NCBJ

In three years, a state-of-the-art center for the design and synthesis of new radiopharmaceuticals will start operating in Świerk. In Warsaw, the National Center for Nuclear Research (NCBJ), representing a consortium of six institutions, signed a funding agreement for the project.

Center for Design and Synthesis of Radiopharmaceuticalsoin Molecularly Targeted will enable comprehensive research on new drugs and related diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The contract for funding the project „CERAD” with the meansoin the European Union was signed on Monday by the National Center for Nuclear Research (NCBJ), representing a consortium of six scientific institutions.

The consortium „CERAD” – oprocz NCBJ – include: Warsaw University, Institute of Chemistry and Nuclear Technology, Warsaw Medical University, Collegium Medicum of Jagiellonian University and Medical University of Białystok. The cost of the project will be approx. 120 millionoin PLN, of which more than PLN 75 million will be funds from the European Union.

– As part of the CERAD project, a new Center for Design and Synthesis of Radiopharmaceuticals will be established in Świerk within three yearsoin Molecularly Targeted equipped with a complex of laboratoriesoin and a unique cyclotron. Will allow zarowno for scientific and research work, as well as for economic use – explains, quoted in a press release sent to PAP by NCBJ director Dr. hab. Krzysztof Kurek. – We are confident that the fruits of the work carried out at CERAD by Polish and international teamsoin the scientistow will create opportunities for diagnosing and treating diseases, with ktor which currently used methods are ineffective,” adds.

According to NCBJ, the heart of CERAD will be a cyclotron accelerating protons, deuterium nuclei, and alpha particles. Particle energies obtained – 30, 15 and 30 million, respectivelyow electron voltsow (MeV) – will allow the isotope to be obtainedoin the radiotechoNCBJ’sore for the needs of nuclear medicine are produced in this wayob in a handful of centers around the world. Scientists will also have at their disposal the Maria nuclear reactor operating in Spruce, which will be used for the design of new drugsory can produce the desired radioisotopes by irradiating appropriate target materials with neutrons. The building of the new center will house m.in. specialized laboratories equipped with chambers for working with radionuclides to protect researchers from radiation, analytical and biological laboratories will also be established.

After preclinical studies of the drug under developmentow the best of them will be able – after obtaining the required permits from bioethics committees – to be tested in clinical trials. This will be possible through participation in a consortium of medical universities. Work on designing new drugsow will gain computational support from the computational center of the Spruce Information Center.

– The primary goal of CERAD is to obtain completely new, effective and safe drugsoin – explains prof. Renata Mikolajczak, Plenipotentiary of the Director for Nuclear Safety. scientific and wspohe national and international cooperation of the Radioisotope CenteroPOLATOM, the project manager „CERAD”. – With a wide range of isotopes availableoin radiationotwohe isotopic tracers produced in the cyclotron or in the reactor can be designed to enable earlier and more precise detection of diseases, and thus earlier implementation of appropriate therapeutic procedures,” he explains.

As he explains, scientists want to combine isotopic techniques with other diagnostic methods based, for example, on. based on molecular markers of the disease state or magnetic resonance imaging. – Thanks to the wide spectrum of isotopes availableoin radiopharmaceuticalsoWe will be able to choose the energy of radiation and the biological period of the radiationoltration of the drug in the body to ensure the optimal therapeutic dose, taking into account the nature and extent of the disease, and the individual situation of the patient. We will develop zaroboth the final drugs and their precursors for the preparation of radiopharmaceuticalsow – explains Prof. Mikolajczak.

The process of manufacturing radiopharmaceuticalsow,” reports NCBJ, is a multi-stage. Protons, deuterons, or alpha particles accelerated in the cyclotron will strike targets of specially selected composition. In them, as a result of nuclear transformations induced by bombarding particles, radionuclides will be formedorational isotopes of elementsow. In a similar mannerob radioisotopes are produced in a stream of neutronoin nuclear reactor-derived. List of nuclidesoin medically interesting includes several dozen elementsow – From the lightest carbon C-11, to the heaviest actin Ac-225. The radionuclides formed in the irradiated targets must first be separated from them and then carefully purified – zar is used for this purposeoBoth chemical and physical methods.

Subsequently, radionuclides are attached to appropriate chemical structures with affinity, e.g. to the comotumor rec. These structures are for radionuclideointo carriers that transport them inside the body to the desired location. The carriers are usually peptides, selected so that they accumulate in the pathologically altered comoRadiopharmaceuticals. Thanks to the decays of radiotworational radionuclideoIn a similar way, nuclides attached to carriersoIn a similar way, nuclides attached to carriers and accumulated in theocancerous tumors, it is possible to diagnose disease sites in the patient. PET and SPECT tomographs are used for this purpose. In a similar mannerob radioisotopes can be used for internal radiotherapy.

In this case, instead of an isotope of radiotworic emitting diagnostically useful beta+ or gamma radiation, can be delivered to diseased comorek nuclides that emit radiation, ktore destroys comocancer cells. The task of the scientistsoin developing new radiopharmaceuticals is such a selection of zaroIn order to achieve the best possible diagnostic or therapeutic effect, accurately target the site of the disease and cause the least possible adverse effects, both the radioisotope and the carrier are usedoin side.

Sourceosource: PAP – Science in Poland, fot. National Center for Nuclear Research