UC Santa Barbara

The radionuclide 213Bi can be applied for targeted α therapy (TAT): a type of nuclear medicine that harnesses α particles to eradicate cancer cells. To use this radionuclide for this application, a bifunctional chelator (BFC) is needed to attach it to a biological targeting vector that can deliver it selectively to cancer cells. Here, we investigated six macrocyclic ligands as potential BFCs, fully characterizing the Bi3+ complexes by NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and elemental analysis. Solid-state structures of three complexes revealed distorted coordination geometries about the Bi3+ center arising from the stereochemically active 6s2 lone pair. The kinetic properties of the Bi3+ complexes were assessed by challenging them with a 1000-fold excess of the chelating agent diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA). The most kinetically inert complexes contained the most basic pendent donors. Density functional theory (DFT) and quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) calculations were employed to investigate this trend, suggesting that the kinetic inertness is not correlated with the extent of the 6s2 lone pair stereochemical activity, but with the extent of covalency between pendent donors. Lastly, radiolabeling studies of 213Bi (30-210 kBq) with three of the most promising ligands showed rapid formation of the radiolabeled complexes at room temperature within 8 min for ligand concentrations as low as 10-7 M, corresponding to radiochemical yields of >80%, thereby demonstrating the promise of this ligand class for use in 213Bi TAT.