Design of compounds having an enhanced tumour uptake, using serum albumin as a carrier. Part I.

The search for a radioiodinated "cumulative" protein label, stored within cells following intracellular protein degradation, suggested that plasma protein turnover of tumours might be of use. While earlier investigators were primarily interested in metabolism and utilization of plasma proteins by tumours, we tried to utilize the tumour protein turnover to channel radioiodine labelled compounds, covalently bound to serum albumin, into neoplastic tissues. To identify those parameters which influence the tumour uptake and storage, we investigated a series of compounds having different chemical and physicochemical properties. Unbound, small molecular weight compounds were rapidly eliminated from the circulatory system. They had a prolonged biological half life if linked to serum albumin (SA), especially when derivatized with deoxysorbitol. Parallel with the prolongation of the biological half-life we noted a remarkable increase in tumour uptake, which was not accompanied by increased liver activity. Furthermore, without thyroid blockade, we failed to detect significant radioiodine uptake in this organ after 24 or 72 h. This is due to the particular coupling mechanism, which may be relevant for other (radio)iodinated pharmaceuticals used in medicine. Glucose and aromatic amines, as well as aromatic aldehydes and glucamine react to form deoxysorbitol derivates, which then have similar biokinetics after linkage to serum albumin. This indicates that a new approach in tumour detection and possibly in tumour therapy may be possible when SA is used as a carrier molecule, using the described labelling procedure.