Matthew Tredwell

18F-Labeling of Arenes and Heteroarenes for Applications in Positron Emission Tomography

Diverse radiochemistry is an essential component of nuclear medicine; this includes imaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET). As such, PET can track diseases at an early stage of development, help patient care planning through personalized medicine and support drug discovery programs. Fluorine-18 is the most frequently used radioisotope in PET radiopharmaceuticals for both clinical and preclinical research. Its physical and nuclear characteristics (97% β(+) decay, 109.8 min half-life, 635 keV positron energy) and high specific activity make it an attractive nuclide for labeling and molecular imaging. Arenes and heteroarenes are privileged candidates for (18)F-incorporation as they are metabolically robust and therefore widely used by medicinal chemists and radiochemists alike. For many years, the range of (hetero)arenes amenable to (18)F-fluorination was limited by the lack of chemically diverse precursors, and of radiochemical methods allowing (18)F-incorporation in high selectivity and efficiency (radiochemical yield and purity, specific activity, and radio-scalability). The appearance of late-stage fluorination reactions catalyzed by transition metal or small organic molecules (organocatalysis) has encouraged much research on the use of these activation manifolds for (18)F-fluorination. In this piece, we review all of the reactions known to date to install the (18)F substituent and other key (18)F-motifs (e.g., CF3, CHF2, OCF3, SCF3, OCHF2) of medicinal relevance onto (hetero)arenes. The field has changed significantly in the past five years, and the current trend suggests that the radiochemical space available for PET applications will expand rapidly in the near future.

18F Labeling of Arenes

Molecular imaging has witnessed an upsurge in growth, with positron emission tomography leading the way. This trend has encouraged numerous synthetic chemists to enter the field of (18) F-radiochemistry and provide generic solutions to address the well-recognized challenges of late-stage fluorination. This Minireview focuses on recent developments in the (18)F-labeling of aromatic substrates.

Palladium‐Catalyzed Allylic Fluorination

The title reaction is presented and its applicability to 18F radiolabeling is demonstrated (see scheme; TBAF=tetra‐n‐butylammonium fluoride, THF=tetrahydrofuran, dba=dibenzylideneacetone). The use of p‐nitrobenzoate as the leaving group is significant to the success of this catalytic organometallic fluorination process. A range of allylic fluorides were synthesized by this method.

A General Copper-Mediated Nucleophilic 18F Fluorination of Arenes†

Molecules labeled with fluorine-18 are used as radiotracers for positron emission tomography. An important challenge is the labeling of arenes not amenable to aromatic nucleophilic substitution (SNAr) with [(18)F]F(-). In the ideal case, the (18)F fluorination of these substrates would be performed through reaction of [(18)F]KF with shelf-stable readily available precursors using a broadly applicable method suitable for automation. Herein, we describe the realization of these requirements with the production of (18)F arenes from pinacol-derived aryl boronic esters (arylBPin) upon treatment with [(18)F]KF/K222 and [Cu(OTf)2(py)4] (OTf = trifluoromethanesulfonate, py = pyridine). This method tolerates electron-poor and electron-rich arenes and various functional groups, and allows access to 6-[(18)F]fluoro-L-DOPA, 6-[(18)F]fluoro-m-tyrosine, and the translocator protein (TSPO) PET ligand [(18)F]DAA1106.

Catalytic decarboxylative fluorination for the synthesis of tri- and difluoromethyl arenes.

Treatment of readily available α,α-difluoro- and α-fluoroarylacetic acids with Selectfluor under Ag(I) catalysis led to decarboxylative fluorination. This operationally simple reaction gave access to tri- and difluoromethylarenes applying a late-stage fluorination strategy. Translation to [(18)F]labeling is demonstrated using [(18)F]Selectfluor bis(triflate), a reagent affording [(18)F]tri- and [(18)F]difluoromethylarenes not within reach with [(18)F]F2.

A broadly applicable [18F]trifluoromethylation of aryl and heteroaryl iodides for PET imaging

Molecules labelled with the unnatural isotope fluorine-18 are used for positron emission tomography. Currently, this molecular imaging technology is not exploited at its full potential because many (18)F-labelled probes are inaccessible or notoriously difficult to produce. Typical challenges associated with (18)F radiochemistry are the short half-life of (18)F (<2 h), the use of sub-stoichiometric amounts of (18)F, relative to the precursor and other reagents, as well as the limited availability of parent (18)F sources of suitable reactivity ([(18)F]F(-) and [(18)F]F2). There is a high-priority demand for general methods allowing access to [(18)F]CF3-substituted molecules for application in pharmaceutical discovery programmes. We report the development of a process for the late-stage [(18)F]trifluoromethylation of (hetero)arenes from [(18)F]fluoride using commercially available reagents and (hetero)aryl iodides. This [(18)F]CuCF3-based protocol benefits from a large substrate scope and is characterized by its operational simplicity.

Metal‐Free Oxidative Fluorination of Phenols with [18F]Fluoride

The radiochemical synthesis of [18F]4‐fluorophenols is based on phenol umpolung under oxidative conditions and direct nucleophilic fluorination with [18F]fluoride (see scheme, TBAF=tetra‐n‐butylammonium fluoride, TFA=trifluoroacetic acid). Readily available O‐unprotected 4‐tert‐butyl phenols are used as precursors in this one‐pot protocol. The reaction is completed in less than 30 minutes at room temperature and can be performed using standard or microfluidic technology.

Electrophilic fluorination of organosilanes

The fluorination of organosilanes with the silyl groups directly attached or adjacent to an aryl or alkenyl group has been only very recently examined despite the fact that the corresponding fluorinated products are synthetically useful building blocks. In these reactions, the silyl group enhances the reactivity of the pi-nucleophile and controls the sense of regiochemistry upon addition of the electrophilic source of fluorine. These reactions take advantage of the beta effect of the silicon-carbon bond and recent results from the literature revealed that this chemistry allows for the preparation of a variety of novel fluorinated building blocks including enantio-enriched derivatives.

Regio- and stereoretentive synthesis of branched, linear (E)- and (Z)-allyl fluorides from allyl carbonates under Ir-catalysis

This paper describes a new catalytic method for the regio- and stereocontrolled fluorination of allylic carbonates. This transformation uses TBAF·4tBuOH as the fluoride source and [Ir(COD)Cl]2 as the catalyst; the most commonly used [Ir(COD)Cl]2/phosphoramidite system is ineffective. Synthetically, this reaction is characterized by a high degree of structural conservation in going from substrates to the products. The fluorination of (E)-allylic carbonates leading to linear (E)-allylic fluorides (l : b > 20 : 1, E : Z > 20 : 1) is unprecedented and a unique feature of fluoride as the nucleophile. The first examples of transition metal catalyzed fluorination affording (Z)-allyl fluorides (Z : E ratio >20 : 1) are disclosed along with the successful fluorination of branched, linear (E)- and (Z)-allyl carbonates with [18F] fluoride in the presence of [Ir(COD)Cl]2. 18O-Labeling of the reactant reveals internal return during the allylic ionization step, and pathways for effective intra- and intermolecular isotope exchange.

A comparison of the behavior of (64)Cu-acetate and (64)Cu-ATSM in vitro and in vivo.

64Cu-diacetyl-bis(N4-methylthiosemicarbazonate), 64Cu-ATSM, continues to be investigated clinically as a PET agent both for delineation of tumor hypoxia and as an effective indicator of patient prognosis, but there are still aspects of the mechanism of action that are not fully understood. Methods: The retention of radioactivity in tumors after administration of 64Cu-ATSM in vivo is substantially higher for tumors with a significant hypoxic fraction. This hypoxia-dependent retention is believed to involve the reduction of Cu-ATSM, followed by the loss of copper to cellular copper processing. To shed light on a possible role of copper metabolism in hypoxia targeting, we have compared 64Cu retention in vitro and in vivo in CaNT and EMT6 cells or cancers after the administration of 64Cu-ATSM or 64Cu-acetate. Results: In vivo in mice bearing CaNT or EMT6 tumors, biodistributions and dynamic PET data are broadly similar for 64Cu-ATSM and 64Cu-acetate. Copper retention in tumors at 15 min is higher after injection of 64Cu-acetate than 64Cu-ATSM, but similar values result at 2 and 16 h for both. Colocalization with hypoxia as measured by EF5 immunohistochemistry is evident for both at 16 h after administration but not at 15 min or 2 h. Interestingly, at 2 h tumor retention for 64Cu-acetate and 64Cu-ATSM, although not colocalizing with hypoxia, is reduced by similar amounts by increased tumor oxygenation due to inhalation of increased O2. In vitro, substantially less uptake is observed for 64Cu-acetate, although this uptake had some hypoxia selectivity. Although 64Cu-ATSM is stable in mouse serum alone, there is rapid disappearance of intact complex from the blood in vivo and comparable amounts of serum bound activity for both 64Cu-ATSM and 64Cu-acetate. Conclusion: That in vivo, in the EMT6 and CaNT tumors studied, the distribution of radiocopper from 64Cu-ATSM in tumors essentially mirrors that of 64Cu-acetate suggests that copper metabolism may also play a role in the mechanism of selectivity of Cu-ATSM.