An improved synthesis of no-carrier-added (NCA) 6-[18F]Fluoro-l-DOPA and its remote routine production for PET investigations of dopaminergic systems

✍ Scribed by Guvvala N. Reddy; Marc Haeberli; Hans-Frieder Beer; August P. Schubiger

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 452 KB
• Volume: 44
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0969-8043
• DOI: 10.1016/0969-8043(93)90126-u

✦ Synopsis

A detailed and improved synthetic procedure to produce NCA 6-['"F]fluoro-L-dopa (6-FDOPA) is described. A remotely-operable system for its routine production was built and tested for stable and reproducible tracer production (n > 20). Commercially available 6-nitroveratraldehyde or 6-nitropiperonal served as precursor for ['*F]fluoride displacement reaction. The resulting 6-['sF]fluoroaldehyde was condensed with 2-phenyl-Soxazolone, followed by reductive hydrolysis, to obtain, after HPLC purification, a racemic mixture of 6-FDOPA. The optical isomers were resolved on a preparative reverse phase chiral column to obtain pure 6-FDOPA.

The chemical, radiochemical and enantiomeric purity was established and was reproducible.

PET Scans in monkeys were carried out to establish viability of NCA 6-DOPA as a PET tracer. This represents first examples of use of NCA 6-FDOPA in assessing dopaminergic functions of brain.