An Overview of In Vitro Assays of 64Cu-, 68Ga-, 125I-, and 99mTc-Labelled Radiopharmaceuticals Using Radiometric Counters in the Era of Radiotheranostics.

first_pagesettingsOrder Article Reprints Open AccessReview An Overview of In Vitro Assays of 64Cu-, 68Ga-, 125I-, and 99mTc-Labelled Radiopharmaceuticals Using Radiometric Counters in the Era of Radiotheranostics by Viviana Benfante 1,2,3,*ORCID,Alessandro Stefano 3ORCID,Muhammad Ali 1,2,Riccardo Laudicella 1,Walter Arancio 1ORCID,Antonino Cucchiara 4,Fabio Caruso 4,Francesco Paolo Cammarata 3ORCID,Claudia Coronnello 1,5ORCID,Giorgio Russo 3,5ORCID,Monica Miele 1ORCID,Alessandra Vieni 4,Antonino Tuttolomondo 2ORCID,Anthony Yezzi 6 andAlbert Comelli 1,5ORCID 1 Ri.MED Foundation, Via Bandiera 11, 90133 Palermo, Italy 2 Department of Health Promotion, Mother and Child Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties, Molecular and Clinical Medicine, University of Palermo, 90127 Palermo, Italy 3 Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology, National Research Council (IBFM-CNR), 90015 Cefalù, Italy 4 Department of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Services, IRCCS-ISMETT (Mediterranean Institute for Transplantation and Advanced Specialized Therapies), Via Tricomi 5, 90127 Palermo, Italy 5 National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC), 90133 Palermo, Italy 6 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Diagnostics 2023, 13(7), 1210; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics13071210 Received: 11 February 2023 / Revised: 11 March 2023 / Accepted: 17 March 2023 / Published: 23 March 2023 (This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiomics and Machine Learning in Disease Diagnosis) Download Browse Figures Versions Notes Abstract Radionuclides are unstable isotopes that mainly emit alpha (?), beta (?) or gamma (?) radiation through radiation decay. Therefore, they are used in the biomedical field to label biomolecules or drugs for diagnostic imaging applications, such as positron emission tomography (PET) and/or single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). A growing field of research is the development of new radiopharmaceuticals for use in cancer treatments. Preclinical studies are the gold standard for translational research. Specifically, in vitro radiopharmaceutical studies are based on the use of radiopharmaceuticals directly on cells. To date, radiometric ?- and ?-counters are the only tools able to assess a preclinical in vitro assay with the aim of estimating uptake, retention, and release parameters, including time- and dose-dependent cytotoxicity and kinetic parameters. This review has been designed for researchers, such as biologists and biotechnologists, who would like to approach the radiobiology field and conduct in vitro assays for cellular radioactivity evaluations using radiometric counters. To demonstrate the importance of in vitro radiopharmaceutical assays using radiometric counters with a view to radiogenomics, many studies based on 64Cu-, 68Ga-, 125I-, and 99mTc-labeled radiopharmaceuticals have been revised and summarized in this manuscript.