Fluorine and rhenium substituted ghrelin analogues as potential imaging probes for the growth hormone secretagogue receptor.

In our effort to create imaging probes targeting the growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR), we now report on the design and synthesis of fluorine and rhenium containing ghrelin analogues through modification of the n-octanoyl Ser-3 side chain. Fluorine analogues were designed whereby the fluorine atom is situated at the terminus of an aliphatic chain using diaminopropionic acid (Dpr) as residue-3. Truncated ghrelin(1-5) and ghrelin(1-14) fluorine-bearing analogues were prepared, the best of which had a 28 nM IC(50) for GHSR.