Shetty HU, Morse CL, Zhang Y, Pike VW. Characterization of fast-decaying PET radiotracers solely through LC-MS/MS of constituent radioactive and carrier isotopologues.
EJNMMI Res 2013;
3:3. [PMID:
23311872 PMCID:
PMC3570351 DOI:
10.1186/2191-219x-3-3]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2012] [Accepted: 12/19/2012] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
UNLABELLED
BACKGROUND
The characterization of fast-decaying radiotracers that are labeled with carbon-11 (t1/2 = 20.38 min), including critical measurement of specific radioactivity (activity per mole at a specific time) before release for use in positron-emission tomography (PET), has relied heavily on chromatographic plus radiometric measurements, each of which may be vulnerable to significant errors. Thus, we aimed to develop a mass-specific detection method using sensitive liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for identifying 11C-labeled tracers and for verifying their specific radioactivities.
METHODS
The LC-MS/MS was tuned and set up with methods to generate and measure the product ions specific for carbon-11 species and M + 1 carrier (predominantly the carbon-13 isotopologue) in four 11C-labeled tracers. These radiotracers were synthesized and then analyzed before extensive carbon-11 decay. The peak areas of carbon-11 species and M + 1 carrier from the LC-MS/MS measurement and the calculated abundances of carbon-12 carrier and M + 1 radioactive species gave the mole fraction of carbon-11 species in each sample. This value upon multiplication with the theoretical specific radioactivity of carbon-11 gave the specific radioactivity of the radiotracer.
RESULTS
LC-MS/MS of each 11C-labeled tracer generated the product ion peaks for carbon-11 species and M + 1 carrier at the expected LC retention time. The intensity of the radioactive peak diminished as time elapsed and was undetectable after six half-lives of carbon-11. Measurements of radiotracer-specific radioactivity determined solely by LC-MS/MS at timed intervals gave a half-life for carbon-11 (20.43 min) in excellent agreement with the value obtained radiometrically. Additionally, the LC-MS/MS measurement gave specific radioactivity values (83 to 505 GBq/μmol) in good agreement with those from conventional radiometric methods.
CONCLUSIONS
11C-Labeled tracers were characterized at a fundamental level involving isolation and mass detection of extremely low-abundance carbon-11 species along with the M + 1 carrier counterpart. This LC-MS/MS method for characterizing fast-decaying radiotracers is valuable in both the development and production of PET radiopharmaceuticals.
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