In the present study, we added ascorbic acid (AA) to <sup>211</sup>At solution to increase the radiochemical purity of astatide and evaluated its efficacy against differentiated thyroid cancer, which is characterized by the expression of sodium/iodide symporter (NIS).
Advances in molecular imaging have led to the development of newer tracers like 18F-TFB (18F-tetrafluoroborate) that are transported through the sodium-iodide symporter (NIS) as well as 68 Ga-DOTATATE that image the somatostatin receptors sub-type 2 expressed in medullary thyroid cancer and some DTC.
The current study aimed to extend the diagnostic and therapeutic application of radioiodine beyond the treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer by targeting the functional sodium-iodide symporter (NIS) to ATC.
Radionuclide-based theranostic strategy has been widely used in diagnosis and treatment of patients with hyperthyroidism or differentiated thyroid cancer for a long time, and sodium iodide symporter gene is the radionuclide-based reporter gene used in theranostics.
Taken together, our data suggest that the reported overexpression of PTTG and PBF in differentiated thyroid cancer has profound implications for activity of the NIS gene, and hence significantly impacts upon the efficacy of radioiodine treatment.
NIS offers the unique advantage that it can be used both as a reporter and as a therapeutic gene, so that it is possible to image, monitor, and treat the tumor with radioiodide, just as in differentiated thyroid cancer.