CageTag: Caged Tharanostics as a Universal Platform for Nuclear Medicine

治疗学是个体化医疗的一种新方法，正在开始产生重大的临床影响。它通常使用两种几乎相同的药物，一种用于诊断和成像疾病，另一种用于治疗。治疗学的一个分支使用发射辐射的元素，这意味着只需交换单个原子就可以获得治疗对。这是因为一些元素产生放射性能量发射，可以直接穿过身体，非常适合诊断，使用正电子发射断层扫描等成像技术，而另一些元素释放放射性粒子，被身体吸收，可以用来杀死病变组织（例如肿瘤）。与传统的外束放射治疗相比，主要的区别在于，治疗方法是选择性的，因为它们可以识别患病的特定组织，因此健康组织的损伤要小得多。这大大减少了患者的副作用。使用相应的成像药物还可以准确评估治疗反应，这意味着可以施用理想剂量（即足以确保肿瘤得到治疗，但不会对患者造成伤害）。在本研究中，我们将探索一种将放射性元素运送到病变组织的新方法。这种方法使用一个可以容纳放射性元素的微型笼子，这样当它附着在药物的识别部分时，辐射就会被输送到患病组织。此外，这个微型笼子被设计成可以锁住不同的元素，因此在诊断和治疗药物之间切换非常容易。这将使能够针对和治疗不同疾病的新的个性化疗法的开发更容易获得，并减少监管障碍。

Theranostics is a new approach in personalised medicine that is starting to have a major clinical impact. It typically uses two almost identical pharmaceuticals, one to diagnose and image disease, the other to treat. One branch of theranostics uses elements that emit radiation, meaning a theranostic pair can be obtained by simply switching a single atom. This works as some elements produce radioactive energy emission that can pass straight through the body and are well suited for diagnosis, using imaging techniques such as positron emission tomography, while others give off radioactive particles that are absorbed by the body and can be used to kill the diseased tissue (e.g. tumour). The major difference compared to conventional external beam radiotherapy is that theranostics are selective as they recognise the specific tissue that is diseased such that healthy tissue damage is much lower. This leads to dramatically reduced side effects for patients. Using the corresponding imaging pharmaceutical can also allow treatment response to be accurately assessed meaning the ideal dose can be administered (i.e. enough to ensure that the tumour has been treated but without causing harm to the patient).In this research, we will investigate a new way of transporting the radioactive element to the diseased tissue. This method uses a miniature cage that can house the radioactive element, so that when it is attached to a recognition part of the pharmaceutical the radiation is transported to the diseased tissue. Moreover, this miniature cage has been designed to lock in different elements so it is incredibly facile to switch between a diagnosis and therapeutic pharmaceutical. This will make the development of new personalised therapies that can target and treat different diseases much more accessible and reduce regulatory hurdles.