Abstract:
Using α-cyano-4-hydroxy-cinnamic acid, a small molecule inhibitor of monocarboxylic acid transporters(MCTs), as the lead compound, a novel
18F-labeled α-cyano-4-hydroxy-cinnamic acid probe was designed and synthesized. The preliminary evaluation of stability and tumor PET/CT imaging were performed in this study. Taking α-cyano-4-(2-p-toluenesulfonyl-ethoxy)-methyl cinnamate as the precursor compound, the intermediate compound α-cyano-4-(2-[
18F]-fluoroethoxy)-methyl cinnamate([
18F]4) was obtained by nucleophilic reaction with
18F
-, which was separated and purified by high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC). α-cyano-4-(2-[
18F]-fluoroethoxy)-cinnamic acid([
18F]FEtO-CHC, [
18F]5) can be obtained from the hydrolysis of [
18F]4 with 2 mol/L NaOH solution and the neutralization with 1 mol/L HCl solution. The results of cell proliferation inhibition assay show that compound [
19F]5 has better inhibitory activity than that of CHC. [
18F]FEtO-CHC shows good stability and biosafety from the
in vitro and
in vivo studies, and micro-PET/CT imaging in DU145 prostate cancer tumor-bearing mice shows that [
18F]5 has obvious radioactive accumulation at the tumor site. [
18F]FEtO-CHC has the advantages of simple synthesis process, good stability, high biological safety, and ability for tumor PET imaging. It is a potential PET agent for specific MCTs imaging.