Semi-automated radiosynthesis of 18F-labeled l-arginine derivative as a potential PET tracer for lung cancer imaging

In this work, we designed and synthesized N-(2-[18F]-flouroptopionyl)-l-arginine ([18F]FPARG), which was an analogue of l-arginine for tumor positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. Semi-automated radiosynthesis of [18F]FPARG was performed from the reaction of l-arginine with 4-nitropheyl-2-[18F]flouropropionate ([18F]NFP) by multi-step procedure on the modified PET-MF-2V-IT-1 synthesizer. The uncorrected radiochemical yield of [18F]FPARG was 15 ± 3 % (n = 10) with more than 98 % radiochemical purity. The small-animal PET/CT fused imaging showed that liver and urinary bladder were the primary excretion route of this tracer.