Summarv
Viqualine, (4-[3-[3(R)-ethenyl-4(R)-pipcridinyl]propyl]-~methoxyquino~~e), has been labelled in the 0-methyl position with nocarrier-added (ma) carbon-1 1 (tllz = 20.4 min; p+ = 99.8%) to provide a potential radioligand for PET studies of 5HT re-uptake sites. Direct treatment of desmethyl-viqualine with nca [ 11Cliodomethane gave [O-methyl-1lC]viqualine as only a minor product. NMR data suggested that the dominant product is that from the [W]alkylation of the competing piperidino-nitrogen. Rotection of this nitrogen with the trityl group, followed by treatment with nca [ 11C]iodomethane in dimethyl sulphoxide with sodium hydroxide as base, and then rapid deprotection by mild acid hydrolysis gave nca [O-methyl-11C]viqualine as the main crude product (27% radiochemical yield, decay-corrected from [ 11Cfiodomethane). Radiochemically and chemically pure nca [O-methyl-llCIviqudine was obtained by work up on C18 Sep-pak followed by reverse phase HPLC. The radiosynthesis. including final formulation for i.v. administration, takes 56 min after producing the carbon-11 as [11C]carbon dioxide by the 14N(p,a)W reaction. This radiosynthesis illustrates the potential utility of the mtyl group for the protection of nitrogen in rapid carbon-1 1 radiochemistry.
Key words:[11C]viqualine. 5HT re-uptake site, radioliogand, PET, N-trityl
I "Positron emission tomography (PET) (1) is now widely explored as a technique for investigating pathophysiology in living man, especially for measuring neurotransmitter systems whose dysfunction may play a role in the progress of poorly understood neuropsychiamc disease (for reviews see references 2-4). Much in vitro and post mortem evidence now implicates a dysfunction in serotonergic neurotransmission in clinical depression (for an overview see reference 5). One hypothesis is that depression results from a deficiency in serotonin (5HT) and hence that the well known tricyclic antidepressants counter this deficiency by specifically inhibiting the presynaptic re-uptake of SHT. More recent hypotheses implicate abnormal levels of either presynaptic 5HT re-uptake sites or post-synaptic 5 m 2 receptors.Clearly, suitably radiolabelled markers of the serotonergic system might allow the aetiology of depression to be investigated by PET in living man. One approach is to develop a radioligand