Antibody Pretargeting Based on Bioorthogonal Click Chemistry for Cancer Imaging and Targeted Radionuclide Therapy

Bioorthogonal click chemistry—employing antibody-conjugated trans-cyclooctenes (TCO) and tetrazine (Tz)-based radioligands able to covalently bind in vivo—appeared recently as a potential alternative to circumvent the hematotoxicity induced by radioimmunotherapy of solid tumors. This Review focuses on the recent advances concerning TCO/Tz pretargeting in both cancer imaging and targeted-radionuclide therapy for prospective clinical transfer. We exhaustively identified 25 PubMed publications reporting preclinical imaging and 5 therapy studies with full mAbs as targeting vectors, since its first application in 2010. The fast, safe, modulable, and specific TCO/Tz pretargeting showed high potential as a theranostic tool to get more personalized and precise cancer care. The recent optimizations reported here highlighted a possible first clinical evaluation of IEDDA pretargeting in the coming years.