Formulation of ^99mTc-glutathione for diagnosis of cancer

Glutathione (GSH) is a natural tripeptide which plays an important role in detoxification reactions, protecting cells against wide range xenobiotics. GSH could form chelat complex with metallic ions such as those of technetium-99m which is used in nuclear medicine for diagnoses of head and neck cancer. In order to fulfill the requisites of ^99mTc-GSH labelled compound, the labelling of GSH with ^99mTc radionuclide under some variations of several parameters has been carried out. The labelling efficiency of ^99mTc-GSH was determined by using TLC-SG thin layer chromatography with two kinds of mobile phase, i.e. dry acetone and 0.9% of NaCl solutions. The optimum labelling condition was achieved at pH 7.0 - 7.5, 20 mg of glutatione, 0.3 mg of SnCl₂.2H₂O and a few seconds shake at room temperature, gave ± 98% of labelling efficiency. The total reaching volume op to 5 ml did not affect the purity of labelled compound. The stability test shows that ^99mTc-GSH was still stable until 6 hours storage at room temperature with 99.34% of radiochemical purity. (author)