Development of a PET-Tracer for Phoshodiesterase 10A

Phosphodiesterases (PDEs) are a class of enzymes heavily involved in cellular signaling by inactivating the second messenger cAMP and cGMP. So far, 11 different PDE families are known, of which one, the dual substrate enzyme PDE10A is abundantly expressed in the striatum. Since this brain region is thought to be involved in the pathomechanism of schizophrenia, PDE10A inhibition represents an approach in the treatment of this disease. In-vivo imaging via positron emission tomography (PET) of PDE10A would allow investigating the enzyme and its expression in neuropathological processes. Therefore our group is focused on the development of a F18-labeled PET tracer for PDE10A. Recently reported 1-arylimidazoquinoxaline inhibitors have been chosen as lead structure.
Based on this scaffold we synthesized a series of new fluorinated compounds as possible PET tracer candidates for PDE10A. To enable an easy F-18 incorporation, fluorine was chosen to be in the 2-position of the pyridine ring. The key step to introduce these different 2-fluoropyridines is the Pd-catalyzed Suzuki-coupling. 2-Fluoropyridines can be localized in two different positions of the arylimidazoquinoxaline scaffold leading to three different types of inhibitors (type A, type B, type C). The inhibitory potency of these compounds was tested towards human, recombinant PDE10A and other PDE-families. All synthesized compounds showed a high inhibitory potency. The most selective inhibitor was chosen to be further developed as PET tracer for PDE10A.