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Review
. 2023 Apr 17;24(8):7400.
doi: 10.3390/ijms24087400.

Scandium-44: Diagnostic Feasibility in Tumor-Related Angiogenesis

György Trencsényi  1 , Zita Képes  1
Affiliations
Review

Scandium-44: Diagnostic Feasibility in Tumor-Related Angiogenesis

György Trencsényi et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Angiogenesis-related cell-surface molecules, including integrins, aminopeptidase N, vascular endothelial growth factor, and gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR), play a crucial role in tumour formation. Radiolabelled imaging probes targeting angiogenic biomarkers serve as valuable vectors in tumour identification. Nowadays, there is a growing interest in novel radionuclides other than gallium-68 (68Ga) or copper-64 (64Cu) to establish selective radiotracers for the imaging of tumour-associated neo-angiogenesis. Given its ideal decay characteristics (Eβ+average: 632 KeV) and a half-life (T1/2 = 3.97 h) that is well matched to the pharmacokinetic profile of small molecules targeting angiogenesis, scandium-44 (44Sc) has gained meaningful attention as a promising radiometal for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. More recently, intensive research has been centered around the investigation of 44Sc-labelled angiogenesis-directed radiopharmaceuticals. Previous studies dealt with the evaluation of 44Sc-appended avb3 integrin-affine Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) tripeptides, GRPR-selective aminobenzoyl-bombesin analogue (AMBA), and hypoxia-associated nitroimidazole derivatives in the identification of various cancers using experimental tumour models. Given the tumour-related hypoxia- and angiogenesis-targeting capability of these PET probes, 44Sc seems to be a strong competitor of the currently used positron emitters in radiotracer development. In this review, we summarize the preliminary preclinical achievements with 44Sc-labelled angiogenesis-specific molecular probes.

Keywords: Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD); aminobenzoyl–bombesin analogue (AMBA); aminopeptidase N (APN/CD13); angiogenesis; carcinogenesis; gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR); integrin; nitroimidazole; positron emission tomography (PET); scandium-44 (44Sc).

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sc44- and Sc47-labelled peptide-based radiopharmaceuticals in the molecular imaging and therapy of cancer-related angiogenesis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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