Preparation and quality control of a new porphyrin complex labeled with 45Ti for PET imaging.

This study aims to produce and quality control of a new porphyrin complex labeled with 45Ti for PET imaging, so at the first step, the cross-section of 45Sc(p,n)45Ti was investigated by TALYS-1.6 and the optimal target thickness and theoretical yield were calculated by SRIM code. The purified 45Ti was labeled with the anticancer agent of tetrakis (pentafluorophenyl) porphyrin (TFPP). The radiochemical purity and the percentage of labeling were evaluated by radiation layer chromatography then the division coefficient of [45Ti]-TFPP was calculated. The dual coincidence imaging system was used for imaging 1 and 2 h after injection [45Ti]-TFPP to rats. Immediately after imaging, the mean percent injected dose per gram and specific activity of different tissues including blood, heart, lungs, stomach, liver, bone, kidney, spleen, intestine, muscle, feces, and skin were measured. The yield of 45Ti production was measured 468 MBq/µAh and the labeling rate was observed more than 98%. The highest activity was observed in the liver (%ID/g = 2.27%, 1 h) and spleen (2.2%, 1 h), respectively, because of the high lipophilic of 45Ti-TFPP. SPECT images showed a significant uptake of radiopharmaceuticals in the abdomen. The labeling rate of 45Ti-TFPP was high and this compound has the potential for clinical application in different ways than PSMA, it can be joined with photodynamic therapy (Severin et al., 2015).

Investigation of the thermal performance of natCu target for 63Zn production.

The flow rate of coolant and the particle beam current are important when high beam current irradiations are intended for production of radionuclides. The beam current on natCu target to produce 63Zn via the natCu(p,n)63Zn reaction was investigated and the beam current was obtained more than 350 µA that is the maximum allowed beam current used for producing medical radioisotopes in Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute of Iran. In addition, the temperature distribution on the target under the different cooling water flow rates has been simulated based on finite element analysis program. The results show that the cooling water flow rate can be brought down to 1.5 L/min without the risk of melting of target material and boiling water.

Experimental study and simulation of 63Zn production via proton induce reaction.

The 63Zn was produced by16.8 MeV proton irradiation of natural copper. Thick target yield for 63Zn in the energy range of 16.8 →12.2 MeV was 2.47 ± 0.12 GBq/µA.h. Reasonable agreement between achieved experimental data and theoretical value of thick target yield for 63Zn was observed. A simple separation procedure of 63Zn from copper target was developed using cation exchange chromatography. About 88 ± 5% of the loaded activity was recovered. The performance of FLUKA to reproduce experimental data of thick target yield of 63Zn is validated. The achieved results from this code were compared with the corresponding experimental data. This comparison demonstrated that FLUKA provides a suitable tool for the simulation of radionuclide production using proton irradiation.

Assessment and estimation of 67Cu production yield via deuteron induced reactions on natZn and 70Zn.

67Cu radioisotope is a beta particle-emitting nuclide used in radioimmunotherapy (RIT) as well as for imaging, tracer kinetic studies and dosimetry. 67Cu can be produced by bombarding natZn with deuterons. In this study, the physical yields of 67Cu via natZn(d,x)67Cu reaction channel as well as via subreactions of 68Zn(d,2pn)67Cu, 67Zn(d,2p)67Cu, 70Zn(d,2p3n)67Cu, 68Zn(d,x)67Ni(T1/2=21s)→67Cu and 70Zn(d,x)67Ni(T1/2=21s)→67Cu in the natZn target have been calculated by using the MCNPX-2.6, TALYS-1.8 and SRIM codes. Also, the total cross sections for production of 67Cu from natZn(d,x)67Cu reaction channel in the energy range of 15-45MeV have been estimated by TALYS code. The best reaction to produce 67Cu radionuclide in a carrier free form was chosen with deuteron energy around 30MeV on 70Zn thick target. Good agreement between the calculated results and the experimental values shows that the employed methods can be used for prediction and production estimation in cyclotron.

Computational simulation of natUO2, 232ThO2 and U3O8-Al pills to estimate (p,fission) 99Mo yield in the modeled targets irradiated by CYCLONE30 accelerator.

99Mo is important for both therapy and imaging purposes. Accelerator and reactor-based procedures are applied to produce it. Newly proton-fission method has been taken in attention by some research centers. In the present work, computationally investigation of the 99Mo yield in different fissionable targets irradiated by proton was aimed. The results showed UO2 pill target could be efficiently used to produce 11.12Ci/g-U saturation yield of 99Mo using 25MeV proton irradiation of the optimized-dimension target with 70µA current.