Neumann KD, Thompson CM, Blecha JE, Gerdes JM, VanBrocklin HF. An improved radiosynthesis of O-(2-[
18 F]fluoroethyl)-O-(p-nitrophenyl)methylphosphonate: A first-in-class cholinesterase PET tracer.
J Labelled Comp Radiopharm 2017;
60:337-342. [PMID:
28406525 DOI:
10.1002/jlcr.3511]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2017] [Revised: 03/31/2017] [Accepted: 04/05/2017] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
O-(2-Fluoroethyl)-O-(p-nitrophenyl) methylphosphonate 1 is an organophosphate cholinesterase inhibitor that creates a phosphonyl-serine covalent adduct at the enzyme active site blocking cholinesterase activity in vivo. The corresponding radiolabeled O-(2-[18 F]fluoroethyl)-O-(p-nitrophenyl) methylphosphonate, [18 F]1, has been previously prepared and found to be an excellent positron emission tomography imaging tracer for assessment of cholinesterases in live brain, peripheral tissues, and blood. However, the previously reported [18 F]1 tracer synthesis was slow even with microwave acceleration, required high-performance liquid chromatography separation of the tracer from impurities, and gave less optimal radiochemical yields. In this paper, we report a new synthetic approach to circumvent these shortcomings that is reliant on the facile reactivity of bis-(O,O-p-nitrophenyl) methylphosphonate, 2, with 2-fluoroethanol in the presence of DBU. The cold synthesis was successfully translated to provide a more robust radiosynthesis. Using this new strategy, the desired tracer, [18 F]1, was obtained in a non-decay-corrected radiochemical yield of 8 ± 2% (n = 7) in >99% radiochemical and >95% chemical purity with a specific activity of 3174 ± 345 Ci/mmol (EOS). This new facile radiosynthesis routinely affords highly pure quantities of [18 F]1, which will further enable tracer development of OP cholinesterase inhibitors and their evaluation in vivo.
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