Continuous low-dose-rate radiation of radionuclide phosphorus-32 for hemangiomas.

The study goal was to clarify the therapeutic effect and the absorbed dose of radionuclide phosphorus-32 for skin hemangiomas and the consequent risk of side effects in these patients. Phosphorus-32 is an ß emitter and is used for skin hemangioma treatment. In comparison with the few Gy per minute of the linear accelerators, the dose rate of phosphorus-32 for hemangiomas is much <1 Gy/hour; so, the latter is called low-dose-rate radiation. To achieve the therapeutic dose, continuous hours or days of radiation is necessary. For strawberry hemangiomas, the phosphorus-32 applicator was tightly placed on the lesion site for several hours until reaching therapeutic dose. The absorbed dose was estimated by radiochromic films. The absorbed dose of phosphorus-32 irradiation declined exponentially with a depth from 0 to 2.5 mm. Of the 316 patients with strawberry hemangiomas, the lesion disappeared completely within 3 months after one-time treatment in 259 cases (82%). For cavernous hemangiomas, 370KBq phosphorus-32 colloid was injected into the hemangioma each square centimeter, and the absorbed radiation was estimated by theoretical calculation. Forty-two of the 58 patients with cavernous hemangiomas (72%) had lesions that completely disappeared within 3 months after receiving one to six treatments. Thus, the phosphorus-32 for strawberry hemangiomas and the chromium phosphate-32 colloid for cavernous hemangiomas were clearly efficacious.

Construction and activity assay of the activating transcription factor 3 reporter vector pATF/CRE-luc.

Activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3), a member of the activating transcription factor/cAMP responsive element binding protein (ATF/CREB) family of transcription factors, is induced by many physiological stresses. To investigate the activity of ATF/CREB in cells with physiological stresses, we developed a practical reporter vector, the plasmid pATF/CRE-luc, bearing activating transcription factor/cAMP responsive element (ATF/CRE) binding sites. This plasmid was constructed by inserting three repeats of the ATF/CRE binding element into the plasmid pG5luc, replacing the GAL-4 binding sites. The plasmids pACT/ATF3 and pATF/CRE-luc were transfected into HeLa and NIH3T3 cells, respectively, and the results showed that the expression of luciferase was increased in a dose-dependent manner on plasmid pACT/ATF3. The data suggested that the plasmid pATF/CRE-luc could be used as a sensitive and convenient reporter system of ATF3 activity.

Direct technetium-99m labeling of anti-hepatoma monoclonal antibody fragment:a radioimmunoconjugate for hepatocellular carcinoma imaging.

AIM:To directly radiolabel an anti-hepatoma mAb fragment HAb18 F(ab')(2) with (99m)Tc by stannousreduced method, and assess the stability, biodistribution and radioimmun oimaging (R II).METHODS:Immunoreactive fraction was determined according to Lindmo's method. Ellman's reagent was used to determine the number of thiols in the reduced F(ab') (2). Labeling efficiency and homogeneity were measured by paper chromatography, sodium dodecylsulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and autoradiography. Challenge assay involved the incubation of aliquots of labeled antibody in ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA) and L-cysteine (L-cys) solutions with different molar ratio at 37° for 1h, respectively. Investigations in vivo utilized nude mice bearing human hepatocellular carcinoma (HHCC) xenografts with gamma camera imaging and tissue biodistribution studies at regular intervals.RESULTS:The labeling procedure was finished within 1.5h compared with the pretinning method which would take at least 21h. In vitro studies demonstrated that the radiolabeled mAb fragment was homogeneous and retained its immunoreactivity. Challenge studies indicated that (99m)Tc-labeled HAb18 F(ab') (2) in EDTA is more stable than in L-cys. Imaging and biodistribution showed a significant tumor uptake at 24h post injection of (99m)Tc-labeled HAb18 F(ab') (2). The blood, kidney, liver and tumor uptakes at 24h were 0.56 ± 0.09, 56.45 ± 11.36,1.43 ± 0.27 and 6.57 ± 3.01 (%ID/g) respectively.CONCLUSION:(99m)Tc-HAb18 F(ab') (2) conjugate prepared by this direct method appears to be an effective way to detect hepatoma in nude mice model.