This work conducted at the “Institut de Chimie Moléculaire de l’Université de Bourgogne” carries at first on the synthesis of bifunctional chelating agents suitable for the chelation of trivalent radiometals, including indium-111. The greater part of this work was then dedicated to the grafting of a DOTA derivative bifunctional chelating agent on different antibodies or fragments of monoclonal antibodies: trastuzumab (anti-HER2 treatment of breast cancer), cetuximab (anti EGFR, treatment of many cancers, including colorectal cancer) and abciximab (antiplatelet). Particular attention was paid to the characterization of various immunoconjugates. The critical step of this thesis consisted in the indium-111 radiolabeling of two previously prepared immunoconjugates: trastuzumab and cetuximab. These steps of radiolabelling allowed us to determine the immunoreactive fraction and affinity of each radiotracer. Thus, we were able to study the in vivo biodistribution of the radiotracers in tumour-bearing mice by SPECT-CT. We also developed an original method for the labeling of a Fab antibody fragment in order to monitor the biodistribution of the antiplatelet agent (abciximab). Finally, we also validated the concept of multimodal imaging through grafting and radiolabeling of a bimodal agent for optical and SPECT imaging on bacterial lipopolysaccharide. Thank’s to this work, we gained an expertise in antibodies radiolabeling. The results obtained allow to consider the labeling of antibodies or other biomolecules, and the use of other radionuclides for PET imaging and radioimmunotherapy
