Development of a widely usable amino acid tracer; Br--methyl-phenylalanine for tumor PET imaging

Hanaoka, Hirofumi*; Ohshima, Yasuhiro; Suzuki, Yurika*; Yamaguchi, Aiko*; Watanabe, Shigeki; Uehara, Tomoya*; Nagamori, Shushi*; Kanai, Yoshikatsu*; Ishioka, Noriko; Tsushima, Yoshito*; Endo, Keigo*; Arano, Yasushi*

Radiolabeled amino acids are superior PET tracers for imaging of malignant tumors, and amino acids labeled with Br, an attractive positron emitter due to its relatively long half-life (t=16.2 h), could potentially be widely usable tumor imaging tracer. In this study, in consideration of stability and tumor specificity, 2-Br-bromo--methyl-L-phenylalanine (2-Br-BAMP) and 4-Br-bromo--methyl-L-phenylalanine (4-Br-BAMP) were designed and their potential as a tumor imaging agent was evaluated. No-carrier-added Br and Br, the latter of which is suitable radiobromine for basic studies due to its longer half-life (t = 57.1 h), were produced. Both Br-BAMPs were stable in the plasma and in the murine body. In biodistribution studies, 2-Br-BAMP showed more rapid blood clearance and lower renal accumulation than did 4-Br-BAMP. More than 90% of injected radioactivity was excreted in the urine by 6 h post-injection of 2-Br-BAMP. High tumor accumulation of 2-Br-BAMP was observed in tumor-bearing mice and PET imaging with 2-Br-BAMP enabled clear visualization of the tumor. These findings suggest that 2-Br-BAMP would constitute a potential new PET tracer for tumor imaging and may eventually enable the wider use of amino acid tracers.