Preparation of 188Re labelled antibodies

A simple technique of directly labelling antibodies with 188Re has been developed. The reduction of antibody disulfide groups was achieved by incubation of antibody with ascorbic acid (pH = 6.5) for an hour at room temperature and a solution of excess SnCl2 in sodium gluconate was added to the AA-reduced antibody followed by the addition of perrhenate. Some factors that influence labelling efficiency, such as the pH of the reaction mixture, the labelling time, and the amount of antibodies and reductive agent, were studied experimentally and a better labelling method was established. The labelling yields, as determined by paper chromatography, were greater than 80%