Synthesis and biological evaluation of carbon‐11‐labeled acyclic and furo[2,3‐d]pyrimidine derivatives of bicyclic nucleoside analogues (BCNAs) for structure–brain uptake relationship study of BCNA tracers

Abstract

We reported earlier on radiolabeled alkoxyphenyl bicyclic nucleoside analogues (BCNAs) as potential positron emission tomography (PET) reporter probes for imaging of varicella zoster virus thymidine kinase (VZV-tk) gene in vivo. Despite their favorable physicochemical properties, these tracers are not taken up in the brain in mice. In order to probe the role of the deoxyribose sugar moiety in blood-brain barrier (BBB) penetration of these molecules, we have synthesized and evaluated a carbon-11-labeled acyclic bicyclic nucleoside derivative (