Stereoselective synthesis and biological evaluation of syn-1-amino-3-[18F]fluorocyclobutyl-1-carboxylic acid as a potential positron emission tomography brain tumor imaging agent.

Amino acid syn-1-amino-3-fluoro-cyclobutyl-1-carboxylic acid (syn-FACBC) 12, the isomer of anti-FACBC, has been selectively synthesized and [(18)F] radiofluorinated in 52% decay-corrected yield using no-carrier-added [(18)F]fluoride. The key step in the synthesis of the desired isomer involved stereoselective reduction using lithium alkylborohydride/zinc chloride, which improved the ratio of anti-alcohol to syn-alcohol from 17:83 to 97:3. syn-FACBC 12 entered rat 9L gliosarcoma cells primarily via L-type amino acid transport in vitro with high uptake of 16% injected dose per 5 x 10(5) cells. Biodistribution studies in rats with 9L gliosarcoma brain tumors demonstrated high tumor to brain ratio of 12:1 at 30 min post injection. In this model, amino acid syn-[(18)F]FACBC 12 is a promising metabolically based radiotracer for positron emission tomography brain tumor imaging.