Encapsulation and retention of 225Ac, 223Ra, 227Th, and decay daughters in zircon-type gadolinium vanadate nanoparticles

Miguel Toro-González, Ashley N. Dame, Saed Mirzadeh, Jessika V. Rojas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Unwanted targeting of healthy organs caused by the relocation of radionuclides from the target site has been one of the limiting factors in the widespread application of targeted alpha therapy in patient regimens. GdVO4 nanoparticles (NPs) were developed as platforms to encapsulate α-emitting radionuclides 223Ra, 225Ac, and 227Th, and retain their decay daughters at the target site. Polycrystalline GdVO4 NPs with different morphologies and a zircon-type tetragonal crystal structure were obtained by precipitation of GdCl3 and Na3VO4 in aqueous media at room temperature. The ability of GdVO4 crystals to host multivalent ions was initially assessed using La, Cs, Bi, Ba, and Pb as surrogates of the radionuclides under investigation. A decrease in Ba encapsulation was obtained after increasing the concentration of surrogate ions, whereas the encapsulation of La cations in GdVO4 NPs was quantitative (∼100%). Retention of radionuclides was assessed in vitro by dialyzing the radioactive GdVO4 NPs against deionized water. While 227Th was quantitatively encapsulated (100%), a partial encapsulation of 223Ra (∼75%) and 225Ac (>60%) was observed in GdVO4 NPs. The maximum leakage of 221Fr (1st decay daughter of 225Ac) was 55.4 ± 3.6%, whereas for 223Ra (1st decay daughter of 227Th) the maximum leakage was 73.0 ± 4.0%. These results show the potential of GdVO4 NPs as platforms of α-emitting radionuclides for their application in targeted alpha therapy.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)967-977
Number of pages11
JournalRadiochimica Acta
Volume108
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2020

Funding

Research funding: This research was supported by the Virginia Commonwealth University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy. This research was supported by Virginia Commonwealth University with the support of the Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering Department and the NRC-HQ-84-14-FOA-002, Faculty Development Program in Radiation Detection and Health Physics at Virginia Commonwealth University, an appointment to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Nuclear Engineering Science Laboratory Synthesis program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, and the U.S. Department of Energy Isotope Program, managed by the Office of Science for Nuclear Physics. The authors would like to thank the assistance received from the staff of the Nuclear and Radiochemistry Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Nanomaterials Core Characterization Facility from the School of Engineering, and the Instrumentation Laboratory from the Department of Chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Keywords

  • Actinium-225
  • Gadolinium vanadate
  • Radium-223
  • Targeted alpha therapy
  • Thorium-227

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