Synthesis and evaluation of Cu-labeled peptide for tumor imaging

Sugo, Yumi; Sasaki, Ichiro; Watanabe, Shigeki; Ohshima, Yasuhiro; Ishioka, Noriko

MARSGL peptide (H-Met-Ala-Arg-Ser-Gly-Leu-OH) has high affinity to the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) overexpressing in various tumor cells. Copper-64 (Cu) is a useful radionuclide in nuclear medicine, and can be produced by the cyclotron. In this study, we designed and synthesized Cu-labeled MARSGL peptide conjugated with 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid (DOTA) as a novel positron emission tomography (PET) imaging probe for HER2 overexpressing tumors. The formation of Cu-DOTA-MARSGL was determined by TLC and HPLC compared with a non-radioactive preparation. It was confirmed that Cu-DOTA-MARSGL was obtained in high radiochemical yield more than 94%. We also examined a stability of Cu-DOTA-MARSGL . The chromatogram was not changed after incubation in physiological saline at 37C overnight. In order to evaluate the usefulness as a PET imaging probe, further studies on the stability in human or mice plasma and the cellular uptake are in progress.