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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

UFS takes lead in improving quality of training in economics in schools

2006-06-20

The fourth international workshop for trainers in the National Council on Economic Education’s (NCEE) outreach programme for Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East will be presented in Bloemfontein from 18-24 June 2006.

“Because of the rapid success we achieved in the Free State with similar workshops in Economics education that were presented by the NCEE the past year, we have now invited representatives from education departments and universities of five other provinces to attend the international workshop for trainers,” said Prof Klopper Oosthuizen, lecturer at the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Department of Agricultural Economics and initiator of the cooperative agreement with the NCEE.

The UFS and the Free State Department of Education are the NCEE’s first partners in Africa who received this training. “The attendance of the five provinces and universities is the first step in the extension of the programme to the rest of the country,” said Prof Oosthuizen.

The NCEE is based in the United States of America (USA) and the workshop forms part of the council’s effort to improve the quality of the training of Economics teachers and lecturers across the world.

“South Africa is urgently in need of efforts to improve the integration of black people into the market economy. An understanding of how markets work is one of the pillars of democracy. Equipping young people with economic understanding and skills will help empower them for responsible roles as individuals and citizens,” said Prof Oosthuizen.

According to Prof Oosthuizen representatives from the education departments of the Northern Cape, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and North West will also be attending the international workshop for trainers. Representatives from the Universities of Rhodes, of KwaZulu-Natal, North West and the Durban University of Technology as well as the Cape Peninsula University of Technology will also attend the workshop.

During this workshop teachers and lecturers in Economics will receive certificates.

Various subjects will be covered during the workshop such as world trade patterns, cost and benefits of free trade, exchange rates and international finance. The training will be done by representatives from the NCEE by using methods such as direct instruction and role play.

The NCEE is also in the process of training teachers and learning facilitators in the Free State in an effort to improve the quality of Economics classes in secondary schools.

“A group of 84 teachers and learning facilitators were trained in December 2005, 50 were trained in January 2006 and the last group of 40 will be trained at the UFS Main Campus in Bloemfontein from 26 June - 1 July 2006,” said Prof Oosthuizen.

During this seminar the teachers will be trained in issues such as broad social goals in an economy, economic decision making, government’s role in a market economy and fiscal policy. The training will also be done by representatives from the NCEE.

The NCEE has been working together with international partners since 1992 to strengthen their Economics teaching systems. They have already succeeded in increasing literacy in Economics at schools in the USA and more than 20 East Block countries. More than 1,5 million learners in the East Block countries have already been served by this initiative. Since 2004 the NCEE’s focus has moved away from the East Block countries to Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

“Our future plans include strengthening the growing partnership between the UFS, the Free State Department of Education and the NCEE. We also want to establish a council and centres for economic education which will serve as an umbrella for our joint efforts,” said Prof Oosthuizen.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
20 June 2006

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