New theranostic nanobody for CMS4 colorectal cancer: selective PET imaging and targeted radiotherapy

Important results from the project

The goal, to develop a radioactively labeled nanobody for in vivo diagnosis of PDGFRbeta expressing colon cancer, was not met. However, knowledge was gained within the project team about working with nanobodies and the method development is valuable for future work on the development of PET tracers based on macromolecules.

Expected long term effects

At present, no further work with nanobodies is planned and thus no long-term effects are expected. A contributing factor is that project manager Gunnar Antoni has been retired since 20250501.

Approach and implementation

The work required nanobodies produced by the collaboration partner Cortalix. Unfortunately, the nanobodies were delivered late in the project and with very variable quality. This resulted in the need to extend the project time on two occasions. The collaboration with Cortalix worked well apart from the above-mentioned problems. They used different manufacturers of nanobodies and there were shortcomings in both manufacturing and quality control.