Manufacturing of Oxygen Isotope Water-¹⁸O

Through production of stable isotopes, Taiyo Nippon Sanso has been contributing to the development of future studies, from cutting-edge research to drug and functional material development.

Water-¹⁸O for PET cancer diagnosis

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is effective for early-stage cancer diagnosis and prognosis, and its use is spreading throughout both the developed and developing world. Furthermore, development of new PET diagnostic reagents that can be applied to diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and cardiac diseases has been advancing in recent years.

Taiyo Nippon Sanso is the only manufacturer in Japan of Water-¹⁸O, which is used to produce PET diagnostic reagents. Since 2004, Taiyo Nippon Sanso provides Water-¹⁸O products to over 30 countries and globally contributes to cancer diagnosis.

The ¹⁸O separation plant that realizes Water-¹⁸O production using oxygen distillation is the first in the world

Only 0.2% of the oxygen-¹⁸O isotope exists in atmospheric oxygen. The Water-¹⁸O is manufactured by enriching the oxygen-¹⁸O over 98 atom%, and is used to produce the [¹⁸F]FDG *1 PET diagnostic reagent for cancer. (Figure 1)

Figure 1: [¹⁸F]FDG -PET diagnosis using Water-¹⁸O

Taiyo Nippon Sanso developed unique ultra-high purity cryogenic oxygen separation technology (Figure 2) and started to produce Water-¹⁸O from 2004*2. This can produce the highly enriched oxygen-¹⁸O (over 98 atom%) more efficiently than conventional distillation technology. Today, Taiyo Nippon Sanso’s Water-¹⁸O products, which of the highest quality, are used by customers all over the world.

Figure 2: Production flow of Water-¹⁸O

¹⁸O separation plant

To stably supply Water-¹⁸O products to meet increasing world demand, Taiyo Nippon Sanso established the No. 1 plant (production capacity of 100kg/year) in 2004, No. 2 plant (capacity of 200 kg/year) in 2013 and No. 3 plant (capacity of 300 kg/year) in 2015, and now has the world’s largest production capacity of 600 kg/year.

• *1 [¹⁸F]FDG: A PET diagnostic reagent consisting of a fluorodeoxyglucose (a glucose analog) labeled with ¹⁸F radio isotope. [¹⁸F]FDG accumulates cancer cells that actively metabolize glucose, so that a PET scanner can use images of [¹⁸F]FDG distribution within the body to diagnose cancer.

• *2 Taiyo Nippon Sanso established Water-¹⁸O production plant with a production capacity of 100 kg/year, based on the “Manufacturing technology of labeled water with ¹⁸O stable isotope” commissioned development project of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).

Total support for stable isotopes from advanced researches to high-functionality materials

Taiyo Nippon Sanso meets various needs relating to stable isolates with its wide range of products and customer services, supporting stable isolate reagents such as D, ¹³C, ¹⁵N and noble gases of ISOTEC (USA), metal isotopes of Trace Sciences International Corporation (Canada) and stable isotope-ratio mass spectrometry of Sercon Ltd. (UK), in addition to Water-¹⁸O.

Through production of stable isotopes, Taiyo Nippon Sanso has been contributing to the development of future studies, from cutting-edge research to drug and functional material development.