Facile Fabrication of Animal-Specific Positioning Molds For Multi-modality Molecular Imaging / 핵의학분자영상

PURPOSE: Recently multi-modal imaging system has become widely adopted in molecular imaging. We tried to fabricate animal-specific positioning molds for PET/MR fusion imaging using easily available molding clay and rapid foam. The animal-specific positioning molds provide immobilization and reproducible positioning of small animal. Herein, we have compared fiber-based molding clay with rapid foam in fabricating the molds of experimental animal. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The round bottomed-acrylic frame, which fitted into microPET gantry, was prepared at first. The experimental mice was anesthetized and placed on the mold for positioning. Rapid foam and fiber-based clay were used to fabricate the mold. In case of both rapid foam and the clay, the experimental animal needs to be pushed down smoothly into the mold for positioning. However, after the mouse was removed, the fabricated clay needed to be dried completely at 60 degrees C in oven overnight for hardening. Four sealed pipet tips containing [18F]FDG solution were used as fiduciary markers. After injection of [18F]FDG via tail vein, microPET scanning was performed. Successively, MRI scanning was followed in the same animal. RESULTS: Animal-specific positioning molds were fabricated using rapid foam and fiber-based molding clay for multimodality imaging. Functional and anatomical images were obtained with microPET and MRI, respectively. The fused PET/MR images were obtained using freely available AMIDE program. CONCLUSION: Animal-specific molds were successfully prepared using easily available rapid foam, molding clay and disposable pipet tips. Thanks to animal-specific molds, fusion images of PET and MR were co-registered with negligible misalignment.

Synthesis of Cyclen-Based Copper Complexes as a Potential Estrogen Receptor Ligand / 핵의학분자영상

PURPOSE: The estrogen receptor (ER), which is over-expressed in ER-positive breast tumors, has been imaged by positron emission tomography (PET) using [18F] labeled estrogen ligands, especially [18F]FES. However, [18F] has relatively short-lived half-life (t1/2=1.8 h) and the labeling yield of radio-fluorination is usually low compared with 64Cu (t1/2=12.7 h). 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane (cyclen) is used to form stable metal complexes with copper, indium, gallium, and gadolinium. With these in mind, we prepared cyclen-based Cu complexes which mimic estradiol in aspect of two hydroxyl groups. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 1,7-Protected cyclen, 1,7-bis (benzyloxycarbonyl)-cyclen was synthesized according to the reported procedure. After introducing two 4-benzyloxybenzyl groups at 4,10-positions, the benzyloxycarbonyl and benzyl groups were removed at the same time by hydrogenation on Pd/C to give 1,7-bis(4-hydroxybenzyl)-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane (1). RESULTS: The prepared ligand 1 was fully characterized by 1H, 13C NMR, and mass spectrometer. The synthesized ligand was reacted with copper chloride and copper perchlorate to give copper complexes [Cu(1)]2+2(ClO4-) and [Cu(1)Cl]+Cl- which were confirmed by high-resolution mass (FAB). CONCLUSION: We successfully synthesized a cyclen derivative of which two phenol groups are located on trans position of N-atoms. And, two Cu(II) complexes of +2 and +1 overall charge, were prepared as a potential PET tracers for ER imaging.