Development of Novel <sup>18</sup>F-PET Agents for Tumor Hypoxia Imaging
Li Wang, Hui Wang, Kun Shen, Hyejin Park, Tao Zhang, Xuedan Wu, Mei Hu, Hong Yuan, Yue Chen, Zhanhong Wu, Qiu Wang, Zibo Li
Abstract
Tumor hypoxia is a major factor responsible for tumor progression, metastasis, invasion, and treatment resistance, leading to low local tumor control and recurrence after radiotherapy in cancers. Here,18F-positron emission tomography (PET) probes are developed for visualizing viable hypoxic cells in biopsies. Pimonidazole derivatives and nitroimidazole-based agents bearing sulfonyl linkers were evaluated. A small-animal PET study showed that the tumor uptake of [18F]-23 [poly(ethylene glycols) (PEG)–sulfonyl linker] of 3.36 ± 0.29%ID/g was significantly higher (P < 0.01) than that of [18F]-20 (piperazine-linker tracer, 2.55 ± 0.49%ID/g) at 2 h postinjection in UPPL tumors. The tumor-to-muscle uptake ratio of [18F]-23 (2.46 ± 0.48 at 2 h pi) was well improved compared with that of [18F]-FMISO (1.25 ± 0.14 at 2 h pi). A comparable distribution pattern was observed between ex vivo autoradiography of [18F]-23 and pimonidazole staining of the neighboring slice, indicating that [18F]-23 is a promising PET agent for hypoxia imaging.