Clinical-grade N-(4-[F]fluorobenzoyl)-interleukin-2 for PET imaging of activated T-cells in humans.

Background: Molecular imaging of immune cells might be a potential tool for response prediction, treatment evaluation and patient selection in inflammatory diseases as well as oncology. Targeting interleukin-2 (IL2) receptors on activated T-cells using positron emission tomography (PET) with N-(4-[F]fluorobenzoyl)-interleukin-2 ([F]FB-IL2) could be such a strategy. This paper describes the challenging translation of the partly manual labeling of [F]FB-IL2 for preclinical studies into an automated procedure following Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), resulting in a radiopharmaceutical suitable for clinical use.