A one-step automated high-radiochemical-yield synthesis of 18F-FECNT from mesylate precursor.

2Beta-carbomethoxy-3beta-(4-chlorophenyl)-8-(2-[(18)F]fluoroethyl)nortropane ((18)F-FECNT) is a potential dopamine transporter imaging agent. In this article, a new mesylate precursor was prepared and a one-step automated synthesis of (18)F-FECNT was developed. The mesylate precursor (4) was synthesized from 2beta-carbomethoxy-3beta-(4-chlorophenyl)tropane (1) by N-demethylation, hydroxyethylation followed by mesylation at a total yield of 47%. [(18)F]fluorination was performed by heating 4mg mesylate precursor and K[(18)F] in 1 ml acetonitrile at 90 degrees C for 20 min. The crude (18)F-FECNT was obtained with a radiolabeling yield of 48%. After purification by preparative high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), the final (18)F-FECNT product was obtained with a radiochemical purity of 98.4% and a decay corrected radiochemical yield of 33+/-9% (and the uncorrected radiochemical yield was 19+/-5%, n=5). The duration of the total procedure was 80-90 min.