Abstract:
18F-AV45 was the first β-amyloid (Aβ) imaging drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the first positron emission tomography drug for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) diagnosis in the world. In this work,
18F-SPy5, a styryl pyridine derivative and the isomer of
18F-AV45, was preliminary studied. First,
18/19F-SPy5 and
18/19F-AV45 were synthesized by nucleophilic substitution. The structures of
19F-SPy5 and
19F-AV45 were confirmed by HRMS,
1H NMR and
13C NMR. The radiochemical purity and the molar activity of
18F-SPy5 and
18F-AV45 were determined by HPLC. And then, the preliminary evaluation of
18F-SPy5 was carried out, which was compared with
18F-AV45. For
18F-SPy5, the radiochemical purity was more than 99%, the molar activity was 3.90×10
9 MBq/mol, and it had suitable lipophilicity and good in vitro stability.
19F-SPy5 displayed high binding affinity to Aβ aggregates (
Ki = 25.9±7.9 nmol) in vitro and
18F-SPy5 displayed specific labeling of Aβ plaques in the brain sections of the AD model mice.
18F-SPy5 exhibited relatively high initial brain uptake, rapid brain clearance and slight defluorination in normal mice. The pharmacokinetics of
18F-SPy5 in normal mice was accorded with two-compartment model. Compared with
18/19F-AV45,
19F-SPy5 had a slightly higher affinity to Aβ aggregates,
18F-SPy5 had a slightly higher initial brain uptake level and a slightly faster clearance from normal brain tissue and a slightly lower skull bone uptake level, but the results of in vitro fluorescence staining by
19F-SPy5 and in vitro autoradiography by
19F-SPy5 were slightly worse. These preliminary results suggested that
18F-SPy5 might serve as a potential Aβ imaging agent, although more in-depth evaluation and further structural modification were required to improve its performance.