Ricerc@Sapienza

Nanomaterials are promising carriers in the field of nanomedicine and represent a very intriguing approach in drug delivery applications, due to their small size, easy surface functionalization and tunable solubility. Among others, metal nanoparticles (MNPs, with M = Au, Ag) are considered ideal materials and nanomedicine applications have greatly increased, especially with respect to drug delivery. Many surface ligands are currently used, ranging from short molecules to polymeric shells in order to limit aggregation phenomena and produce water-dispersible colloids. The possibility to join the MNPs properties with nanomedicine requests, has driven our interest in the field of nuclear medicine. Thanks to an interdisciplinary approach, also based on previous strong collaboration within the Share-Science research group of the Faculty of Science, this project aims to improve basic knowledge on nanomaterials and nuclear medicine. The idea is to synthetize hydrophilic MNPs and to load onto the surface a source of Yttrium-89, a ¿cold¿ isotope as a model for Yttrium-90 a ß- emitting radioisotope. This strategy can be used in applications such as radio-guided surgery (RGS) and it represents an innovative approach where the chemistry of nanoparticles can be joined with physics of radioisotopes. The ¿cold¿ nanomaterial can be prepared by combining an appropriate linker and chelator for Y3+ with the MNPs. The new material will be tested in vitro and the feasibility of an ¿hot¿ preparation with radionuclide 90Y3+ will be investigated in collaboration with the Nuclear Medicine Institute of Policlinico Gemelli. A part of the project will be dedicated to the development of a detector of ß-radiation to better study the in vitro and in vivo compounds labeled with 90Y3+.