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Theranostics in the fight against cancer

25 April 2022 | Story Elsabé Brits

Andre Roodt and Alice Brink — Prof Andreas Roodt and Prof Alice Brink are two of the inventors of the ‘Multinuclear complexes and their preparation patent.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020, or nearly one in six. The most common cancers are breast, lung, colon, rectum, and prostate cancers. There is a constant need to provide methods to diagnose and treat cancer-related tumours. Current research strategies focus on eliminating cancer cells with the minimum damage to surrounding healthy cells.

A limitation of current technologies is that they are mostly based on the separate identification of cancer (diagnostic), followed by treatment (therapy) using chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. To fit both needs at the same time and with similar or identical compounds, the principle of theranostic medicine was identified. This concept employs both diagnosing (by imaging) cancer and delivering therapy (treatment) simultaneously, which has been receiving increased attention internationally.

Collaborating with the University of Zurich
A University of the Free State (UFS) team, together with a team from the University of Zürich, conducted exciting research in this area and filed a patent titled ‘Multinuclear complexes and their preparation’. The patent was granted in South Africa and by the European Patent Office. It is being validated in selected European countries. The patent is pending in the USA, Japan, Hong Kong, and India. The inventors from the UFS are Prof Andreas Roodt, Prof Alice Brink, Dr Pennie Mokolokolo, and Dr Vincent Dumisani Kama. The approach that their technology takes is to enable the synthesis of a multinuclear compound/s, which may contain different pre-selected radioisotopes, to allow both imaging and therapy to the cancer site(s) with one and the same metal-organic complex.

So far, high-yield production of compounds has been successfully innovated, which contain both an imaging (in particular the widely utilised imaging isotope Technetium-99m) and therapeutic (typically the therapeutic isotope Rhenium-186) radioactive isotope(s), optionally carrying an additional cytotoxic agent. (Chemotherapy uses anti-cancer [cytotoxic] drugs to destroy cancer cells.)

Nuclear medicine technologies
In the next phase of the research, a lead compound portfolio of four to five model pharmaceuticals containing these metal nuclides with appropriate directing groups to target cancer sites will be designed and constructed. A number of these entities are known and can be introduced through different techniques. These will then undergo full characterisation and efficacy evaluation in biological models (in vitro), followed by extensive animal and human trials.

The technology will be delivered as a product or service in the way that current nuclear medicine technologies are delivered.

The fact that this product(s) contains both imaging and therapeutic radionuclides or cytotoxic modalities, enables detailed tracking of the pharmaceutical and monitoring of the tumours' response to the therapy. Not directly related to the patent, but an asset to it, is the fact that the incorporation of rhenium with a high atomic number (Z = 75) opens the additional opportunity to utilise the multinuclear compounds also as radiosensitisers. Synergistic effects, enhancing the therapeutic efficacy, can thus be expected in combination with radiotherapy.

The UFS would like to partner with a pharmaceutical company working in the field of nuclear medicine to commercialise this technology. Interested parties can contact Ravini Moodley at MoodleyR5@ufs.ac.za

News Archive

Faculty of Law establishes unique panel of advisors

2005-11-11

Photo: Stephen Collett

Some of the panel members who attended the Collegium Iurisprudentium of the Faculty of Law at the UFS were from the left His Honorable Judge of Appeal Lex Mpati (Vice-President of the Supreme Court of Appeal), His Honorable Judge of Appeal Joos Hefer (former Chief Justice of South Africa), His Honorable Judge of Appeal Frits Brand (Supreme Court of Appeal) and Mrs Alet Ellis (lecturer at the UFS Faculty of Law).

At the back from left were Prof Johan Henning (Dean: Faculty of Law at the UFS), His Honorable Judge Faan Hancke (High Court of the Free State and chairperson of the UFS Council) and Adv Jannie Lubbe Sc.

The Faculty of Law at the University of the Free State (UFS) has established a panel of advisors comprising of all the honorary and extraordinary professors of the faculty.

“The faculty has been known for its excellent practice-orientated training as well as the involvement of law practitioners in the training of LL B-students,” said Prof Johan Henning, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the UFS.

“The faculty was greatly dependent on the services of advocate lecturers, full-time members of the Bar and Side Bar who lectured on a part-time basis at the faculty. For this reason lecturing in the faculty was mainly done after-hours to part-time students,” said Prof Henning.

With the shift in emphasis to full-time lecturing and the appointment of full-time lecturers, especially because of the increasing student numbers, the full-time LL B-programme and the increasing pressure on students for quality research inputs, a greater need for meaningful contributions of judges and senior law practitioners to the faculty was experienced.

“To comply with this urgent need, three honorary professors and nine extraordinary professors were appointed. This group of experts deliver an indispensable contribution to the practice orientation of the faculty by means of formal lectures, public inaugural lectures and guest lectures, direct lectures to graduate and post-graduate students, participation in research projects and the constant evaluation of lecturers, modules and the content of modules and learning material. The international exposure of students and lecturers is also promoted by their contribution,” said Prof Henning.
“A need to have the involvement of this special class of professors structured in a more organised way was identified and a decision was made to establish an advisory panel called Collegium Iurisprudentium. It is a privilege to us that all the honorary and extraordinary professors accepted the invitation,” said Prof Henning.

The panel will provide the faculty with continuous, distinguished, practice- orientated capability and capacity as well as international expertise, not only for direct inputs to students but also to advise lecturers about the curriculum, the compilation of the content of the LL B and M module, learning material and others, as well as to strengthen the research capacity of the faculty.

“The panel will also deliver a decisive contribution to the faculty’s preparation for the constitutional audit of the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) of the Council for Higher Education (CHE) that will take place in October 2006,” said Prof Henning.

The Collegium Iurisprudentium, which has been formally constituted, comprises of:

Appeal Court Judge J J F Hefer,
Appeal Court Judge L Mpati
Appeal Court Judge F D J Brand
Appeal Court Judge I G Farlam
Prof B A K Rider
Judge S P B Hancke
Judge A Kruger
Judge D H van Zyl
Adv S J Naudé
Adv J Lubbe Sc
Prof M M Katz
Prof R J Cook
Mr S van de Merwe
Mr W van der Westhuizen
Mr D C M Gihwala

Media release
Issued by:Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
11 November 2005

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