Competitive reactions observed during the synthesis of ¹⁸F-labelled compounds intended for monitoring gene therapy

Introduction
For monitoring gene expression of the herpes simplex virus type-1 thymidine kinase (HSV-1 tk), several reporter probes such as acycloguanosine analogues labelled with fluorine-18 have been described [1]. Studying several methods for radiolabelling eligible precursors with the isotope fluorine-18, we noticed highly varying yields, depending on the precursor used. This is due to the occurrence of competitive reactions that reduce the labelling yields of the tracers.

Results
Conversion of the precursors 5 and 6 into [¹⁸F]FHPG 1 and [¹⁸F]FHBG 2, but also into the non-radioactive fluorine compounds, resulted in a much lower yield compared to the methylated derivatives 7 and 8.

The nucleophilic fluorination with Kryptofix K2.2.2 to prepare the labelled compounds 1-4 was performed according to [2,3]. The unreacted ¹⁸F was removed by purification with a silica gel cartridge eluted with CH₂Cl₂/MeOH 85:15. In splitting off the methoxytrityl protection groups by of aqueous HCl, the precursors behave different. With the acycloguanosines derivatives 1 and 3 bearing an oxygen in their side-chain a by-product was delivered. The carba-analogues 2 and 4 are stable under these conditions.

Non-radioactive fluorination of compounds 5 and 6 delivers a N¹/O (from -OTs) bridged structure (characterized by ¹H NMR, IR, MS and elemental analysis) as by-product in a yield of 20%. This concurrent reaction was also observed in the ¹⁸F-labelling experiments. Since the methyl group in the N¹-position inhibits the cyclisation, 7 and 8 do not form such a by-product.
The splitting off the methoxytrityl protection groups by aqueous HCl is accompanied by decomposition. The two-phase system water-dichloromethane did not allow a satisfying control of the reaction temperature and in consequence, the acyclic side-chain of 1 and 3 was splitted off to result a by-product. These problems were overcome by using methanolic HCl as splitting agent. Its miscibility with CH₂Cl₂ allows a better reaction control, resulting in shorter reaction times and reducing the by-products.

References
[1] Wiebe, L. I. et al. Q. J. Nucl. Med. 1997, 41, 79-89.
[2] Alauddin, M. M. et al. Nucl. Med. Biol. 1998, 25, 175-180.
[3] Alauddin, M. M. et al. Nucl. Med. Biol. 1999, 26, 371-376.
[4] Shiue, G. G. et al. Nucl. Med. Biol. 2001, 28, 875-883.