We have recently introduced a 1,4,7-triazacyclononane (TACN) based chelating system with additional five-membered azaheterocyclic substituents for complexation of radioactive Cu ions. In this work, we investigated the complexation properties of these novel chelators with Ga. In labeling experiments, we could show that the penta- and hexadentate imidazole derivatives NODIA-Me 4 and NOTI-Me 1 can be labeled with Ga in specific activities up to ∼30 MBq nmol, while the corresponding thiazole derivative NOTThia 2 did not label satisfactorily under identical conditions. NMR studies on the Ga complexes of 1 and the model compound NODIA-Me-NH-Me 5 revealed formation of rigid 1:1 chelates with a slow macrocyclic interconversion and inert Ga-N bonds to the methylimidazole residues on the NMR time scale. The TACN-derived bifunctional chelator NODIA-Me was furthermore conjugated to a prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) targeting moiety to give the corresponding bioconjugate NODIA-Me-PSMA 7. Serum stability and ligand challenge experiments of Ga-7 confirmed formation of a stable complex for up to 4 h. The remaining coordination site of five-coordinate Ga complexes was found to be occupied by monodentate ligands including hydroxide and chloride anions depending on the conditions. According to density functional theory calculations, coordination of monodentate ligands as well as of the amide group for the bioconjugated ligand are energetically plausible. Finally, the labeled bioconjugateGa-7 exhibited rapid renal clearance in biodistribution studies performed by small animal PET imaging with no indication of transchelation/demetalation in vivo. Altogether, our results provide strong evidence for a stable Ga complexation of our novel TACN-based chelators bearing imidazole arms. Despite the formation of two complexes incorporating different monodentate ligands in vitro, the imidazole type ligands show promise as chelating agents for the future development of gallium based radiopharmaceuticals.

Multi-step synthetic route provides the ligand NODIA-Me in high yield. Radiolabeling with [111In]InCl3 yields stable complexes in high radiochemical purity and yield.

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