Basic studies for the development of a PET cancer imaging agent utilizing physical and biological properties of Zn-63

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Zinc-63 is a positron emitter with 38 min half life and can be produced with a small clinical cyclotron targeting Cu-63, the most abundant Cu isotope, which makes Zn-63 attractive for clinical use. Zn is necessary for cell proliferation and supposed to be involved in cancer development. In this study, we explored the possibility to use Zn-63 for cancer imaging. We found that the uptake of Zn by cancer cells was found to be correlated with Zn content, suggesting that the uptake reflects the physiological needs of the cells, and that EDDA, a relatively weak chelator of Zn, worked favorably for caner imaging. We also found that adjusting the dose, higher accumulation of Zn into tumor mass was achievable. The small animal PET imaging of tumor in mouse model was successful with Zn-63 produced in our institute.