[(18)F]T807 demonstrates high affinity and selectivity to PHF-tau as well as favorable in vivo properties, making this a promising candidate as an imaging agent for AD.

Senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles are prominent neuropathological hallmarks in Alzheimer's disease and are considered to be targets for therapeutic intervention as well as biomarkers for diagnostic in vivo imaging agents. While there are a number of amyloid-β positron emission tomography (PET) tracers currently in different stages of clinical development and commercialization, there have been very few reports on imaging agents selectively targeting tau aggregates. In search of [18F]-PET tracers that possess great binding affinity and selectivity toward tau tangles, we tested more than 900 compounds utilizing a unique screening process. A competitive autoradiography assay was set up to test compounds for binding to native tau tangles and amyloid-β plaques on human brain tissue sections. In our in vitro assays, the 18F labeled compound [18F]-T808 displayed a high level of binding affinity and good selectivity for tau aggregates over amyloid-β plaques. [18F]-T808 showed rapid uptake and washout in rodent brains. Our in vitro and preclinical in vivo studies suggest that [18F]-T808 possesses suitable properties and characteristics to be a specific and selective PET probe for imaging of paired helical filament tau in human brains.

Using sonication as a means of facilitating organic reactions in carbohydrate chemistry was explored under the conditions used for traditional organic synthesis. An array of representative reactions, including hydroxy group manipulation (acylation, protection/deprotection, acyl group migration), thioglycoside synthesis, azidoglycoside synthesis, 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition and reductive cleavage of benzylidene, commonly used in the synthesis of carbohydrate derivatives was examined. A series of glycosylation reactions that employ thioglycosides, glycosyl trichloroacetimidate, glycosyl bromide and glycosyl acetate as the glycosyl donors was also examined. Our results demonstrate that sonication can significantly shorten the reaction time, enhance the reactivity of reactant and lead to superior yield and excellent stereoselectivity. More importantly, a general protocol of glycosylation may finally be developed. Sonication is compatible to the conditions used for traditional organic synthesis. We believe that sonication can also be applied to other areas of synthetic processes.

In vivo imaging of MMPs is of great (pre)clinical interest and can potentially be realized with modern three-dimensional and noninvasive in vivo molecular imaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET). Consequently, MMP inhibitors (MMPIs) radiolabeled with positron emitting nuclides (e.g., (18)F) represent a suitable tool for the visualization of activated MMPs with PET. On the basis of our previous work and results regarding radiolabeled and unlabeled derivatives of the nonselective MMPIs, we discovered a new class of fluorinated MMPIs with a triazole-substituted hydroxamate substructure. These novel MMPIs are characterized by an increased hydrophilicity compared with the lead structures and excellent MMP inhibition potencies for MMP-2, MMP-8, MMP-9, and MMP-13 (IC(50) = 0.006-107 nM). Therefore, one promising fluorinated triazole-substituted hydroxamate (30b) was selected and resynthesised as its (18)F-labeled version to yield the potential PET radioligand [(18)F]30b. The biodistribution behavior of this novel compound was investigated with small animal PET.

We report the use [(18)F]-CP18 as a PET tracer for imaging apoptosis. Our data support further development of this tracer for clinical PET applications.