Improved automated synthesis of [18F]fluoroethylcholine as a radiotracer for cancer imaging.
[(18)F]Fluoroethylcholine has been recently introduced as a promising (18)F-labelled analogue of [(11)C]choline which had been previously described as a tracer for metabolic cancer imaging with positron emission tomography (PET). Due to the practical advantages of using the longer-lived radioisotope (18)F (t(1/2)=110 min), offering the opportunity of a more widespread clinical application, we established a reliable, fully automated synthesis for its production using a modified, commercially available module. [(18)F]Fluoroethylcholine was prepared from N,N-dimethylaminoethanol by iodide catalyzed alkylation with 1-[(18)F]fluoro-2-tosylethane as alkylating agent, resulting in a total radiochemical yield of 30+/-6% after a synthesis time of 50 min. The specific activity of [(18)F]fluoroethylcholine was >55 GBq/micromol and the radiochemical purity 95-99%.
Piel
M
M
Institute of Nuclear Chemistry, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55128 Mainz, Germany. piel@mail.uni-mainz.de <piel@mail.uni-mainz.de>
Bauman
A
A
Baum
R P
RP
Höhnemann
S
S
Klette
I
I
Wortmann
R
R
Rösch
F
F
D002794:Choline / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D005462:Fluorine Radioisotopes; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D005462:Fluorine Radioisotopes; C448902:fluoroethylcholine; D002794:Choline