Simple production of radioisotope 64Cu and 64Cu-ATSM using enrich 64Ni

One of positron emission radionuclides, Cu-64 (Copper) study for PET imaging has recently been reported to be particularly effective in tumor diagnosis. This utility of Cu-64 depends on the proper radioactivity of positron emission and chemical stability (CuCl2)in water. However, the Cu-64 production has never been studied in Korea. The aim of our study was to widen the use of Cu-64 in molecular imaging based on PET technology. At first, we tried to prepare 64Cu-ATSM which was very well known as hypoxia tumor imaging. The radioisotope Cu-64 used here was prepared according to simple method modified from Welch group in Washington University at St Louis. In particular, we could design the simple equipment of plating enrich Ni-64 (Nickel) on gold foil and separating 64Cu from radioactive solution, respectively. The surface state and thickness of enrich nickel in target was analyzed by SEM. For nuclear reaction, we carried out pn reaction under about 30A/ 15MeV at 50MeV cyclotron. On the other hand, the imaging ability of Cu-64 was determined by microPET phantom study. In the synthesis of 64Cu-ATSM we took advantage of metal chelating method. The radioactive copper was easily purified by resin column and its radiochemical purity was over 99%. Here we have obtained an interesting result to change the yield of Cu-64 according to thickness of enrich nickel on gold foil. By the use of multichannel analyzer installed HPGe detector, we were able to identify the energy of Cu-64 gamma ray at 511, 1022 and 1346 KeV as reported previously. Furthermore, the PET images of Cu-64 were very similar to that of F-18 at the same phantom. The radiochemical purity of 64Cu-ATSM also was over 90% after sterile filter and it maintained in saline as stable as technetium agents for SPECT. This development of Cu-64 production and its application may be extended to the synthesis of new radiotracer for molecular imaging and tumor therapy