title: Improved automated synthesis of [18F]fluoroethylcholine as a radiotracer for cancer imaging.
abstract: [(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%.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Nuclear Chemistry, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55128 Mainz, Germany. piel@mail.uni-mainz.de <piel@mail.uni-mainz.de>
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Piel
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bauman
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Baum
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Höhnemann
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Klette
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wortmann
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rösch
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D005462:Fluorine Radioisotopes; C448902:fluoroethylcholine; D002794:Choline