Production of 6-l-[18F]Fluoro- m-tyrosine in an Automated Synthesis Module for 11C-Labeling

Viktoriya V Orlovskaya; Austin S Craig; Olga S Fedorova; Olga F Kuznetsova; Bernd Neumaier; Raisa N Krasikova; Boris D Zlatopolskiy

doi:10.3390/molecules26185550

Production of 6-l-[¹⁸F]Fluoro- m-tyrosine in an Automated Synthesis Module for ¹¹C-Labeling

Molecules. 2021 Sep 13;26(18):5550. doi: 10.3390/molecules26185550.

Authors

Viktoriya V Orlovskaya¹, Austin S Craig^{2

3}, Olga S Fedorova¹, Olga F Kuznetsova¹, Bernd Neumaier^{2

3

4}, Raisa N Krasikova¹, Boris D Zlatopolskiy^{2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ N.P.Bechtereva Institute of the Human Brain, 197376 St. Petersburg, Russia.
² Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, INM-5: Nuclear Chemistry, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
³ Institute of Radiochemistry and Experimental Molecular Imaging, University Clinic Cologne, 50937 Cologne, Germany.
⁴ Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research, 50931 Cologne, Germany.

Abstract

6-l-[¹⁸F]Fluoro-m-tyrosine (6-l-[¹⁸F]FMT) represents a valuable alternative to 6-l-[¹⁸F]FDOPA which is conventionally used for the diagnosis and staging of Parkinson's disease. However, clinical applications of 6-l-[¹⁸F]FMT have been limited by the paucity of practical production methods for its automated production. Herein we describe the practical preparation of 6-l-[¹⁸F]FMT using alcohol-enhanced Cu-mediated radiofluorination of Bpin-substituted chiral Ni(II) complex in the presence of non-basic Bu₄ONTf using a volatile iPrOH/MeCN mixture as reaction solvent. A simple and fast radiolabeling procedure afforded the tracer in 20.0 ± 3.0% activity yield within 70 min. The developed method was directly implemented onto a modified TracerLab FX C Pro platform originally designed for ¹¹C-labeling. This method enables an uncomplicated switch between ¹¹C- and ¹⁸F-labeling. The simplicity of the developed procedure enables its easy adaptation to other commercially available remote-controlled synthesis units and paves the way for a widespread application of 6-l-[¹⁸F]FMT in the clinic.

Keywords: 6-l-[18F]fluoro-m-tyrosine; Cu-mediated; alcohol-enhanced; automated synthesis; fluorine-18; radiofluorination.

Abstract

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