[Use of radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies for diagnostic imaging].

Monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) are expected to carry radionuclides selectively to target tissues and to offer antigen-specific diagnosis. Indium (In)-111 has many favorable nuclear properties and is efficiently labeled with MoAbs using DTPA as a bifunctional chelating agent. In-111 labeled MoAbs are clinically employed for the diagnosis of malignant melanoma, colorectal cancer and acute myocardial infarction in Japan. Although non-specific deposit of In-111 was seen in liver and bone-marrow, scintigraphy using In-111 labeled MoAbs was encouraging, since it detected about 80% of tumors, tumors missed by conventional diagnostic methods such as CT, and tumors in patients with normal serum CEA values, and acute myocarditis as well as acute myocardial infarction was positive with In-11 labeled Fab fraction of anti-myosin Ab. Acute or subacute toxicity was not observed. Human anti-murine antibody (HAMA) was detected in 53 of 64 (82.8%) patients who were intravenously administered with 20 to 42 mg of anti-melanoma or anti-CEA MoAbs (whole IgG). In contrast, only 5 of 406 (1.2%) patients had detectable levels of HAMA in their serum after receiving 0.5 mg of Fab fraction of MoAb. Recently mouse-human chimeric Ab has been produced by recombinant DNA techniques, which localized well in xenografted tumors and seems to be promising for clinical use. Investigations are under way to increase the tumor to non-tumor ratio by modifying chelating agents for coupling MoAbs with radionuclides.