Identification and Preclinical Development of a 2,5,6-Trisubstituted Fluorinated Pyridine Derivative as a Radioligand for the Positron Emission Tomography Imaging of Cannabinoid Type 2 Receptors

J Med Chem. 2020 Sep 24;63(18):10287-10306. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c00778. Epub 2020 Sep 1.

Abstract

Despite the broad implications of the cannabinoid type 2 receptor (CB2) in neuroinflammatory processes, a suitable CB2-targeted probe is currently lacking in clinical routine. In this work, we synthesized 15 fluorinated pyridine derivatives and tested their binding affinities toward CB2 and CB1. With a sub-nanomolar affinity (Ki for CB2) of 0.8 nM and a remarkable selectivity factor of >12,000 over CB1, RoSMA-18-d6 exhibited outstanding in vitro performance characteristics and was radiofluorinated with an average radiochemical yield of 10.6 ± 3.8% (n = 16) and molar activities ranging from 52 to 65 GBq/μmol (radiochemical purity > 99%). [18F]RoSMA-18-d6 showed exceptional CB2 attributes as demonstrated by in vitro autoradiography, ex vivo biodistribution, and positron emission tomography (PET). Further, [18F]RoSMA-18-d6 was used to detect CB2 upregulation on postmortem human ALS spinal cord tissues. Overall, these results suggest that [18F]RoSMA-18-d6 is a promising CB2 PET radioligand for clinical translation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Brain / diagnostic imaging
  • Fluorine Radioisotopes / chemistry
  • Humans
  • Ligands
  • Male
  • Molecular Docking Simulation
  • Molecular Structure
  • Positron-Emission Tomography
  • Pyridines / chemical synthesis
  • Pyridines / pharmacokinetics
  • Pyridines / pharmacology*
  • Radiopharmaceuticals / chemical synthesis
  • Radiopharmaceuticals / pharmacokinetics
  • Radiopharmaceuticals / pharmacology*
  • Rats, Wistar
  • Receptor, Cannabinoid, CB2 / metabolism*
  • Spinal Cord / diagnostic imaging
  • Spleen / diagnostic imaging
  • Structure-Activity Relationship
  • Tritium / chemistry

Substances

  • Fluorine Radioisotopes
  • Ligands
  • Pyridines
  • Radiopharmaceuticals
  • Receptor, Cannabinoid, CB2
  • Tritium
  • Fluorine-18