Publications by authors named "Stephen G Dimagno"

Fibroblast activation protein-α (FAP) has attracted increasing attention as a selective marker of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and more broadly, of activated fibroblasts in tissues undergoing remodeling of their ECM due to chronic inflammation, fibrosis, or wound healing. Since FAP is critical to the initiation of metastatic growth, its expression will serve as a molecular marker to detect tumors at an earlier stage of development compared to currently available methods. The design of high affinity small molecule FAP inhibitor will allow for noninvasive imaging of activated fibroblast in cancer patients.

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Cancer cells require lipids to fulfill energetic, proliferative, and signaling requirements. Even though these cells can take up exogenous fatty acids, the majority exhibit a dependency on de novo fatty acid synthesis. Fatty acid synthase (FASN) is the rate-limiting enzyme in this process.

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Purpose: Fibroblast activation protein-α (FAPα) is uniquely expressed in activated fibroblasts, including cancer-associated fibroblasts that populate tumor stroma and contribute to proliferation and immunosuppression. Radiolabeled FAPα inhibitors enable imaging of multiple human cancers, but time-dependent clearance from tumors currently limits their utility as FAPα-targeted radiotherapeutics. We sought to increase the area under the curve (AUC) by constructing a trifunctional ligand that binds FAPα with high affinity and also binds albumin and theranostic radiometals.

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The application of small molecules targeting prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) has emerged as a highly promising clinical strategy for visualization and treatment of prostate cancer. Ligands that integrate the ability to both quantify the distribution of radioactivity and treat disease through the use of a matched pair of radionuclides have particular value in clinical and regulatory settings. In this study, we describe the development and preclinical evaluation of RPS-085, a ligand that binds PSMA and serum albumin and exploits the Cu radionuclide pair for prostate cancer theranostics.

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Despite significant gains in the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer by radioligands targeting prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), 30% of patients never respond to therapy. One possible explanation is insufficient dose delivery to the tumor because of suboptimal pharmacokinetics. We have recently described RPS-063, a trifunctional ligand targeting PSMA with high uptake in LNCaP xenograft tumors but also in kidneys.

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Promising biochemical responses to Ac-prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) 617, even in patients who are refractory to β-particle radiation, illustrate the potential of targeted α-therapy for the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. However, side effects such as xerostomia are severe and irreversible. To fully harness the potential of targeted α-therapy, it is necessary to increase the therapeutic index of the targeted radioligands.

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6-[ F]Fluorodopamine ([ F]F-DA) is taken into cells via the norepinephrine transporter (NET). Recent [ F]F-DA positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) imaging of adult neuroendocrine tumors shows a dramatic improvement in sensitivity over the standard-of-care, meta-iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)-CT. A new precursor (ALPdopamine™) allows no-carrier-added synthesis resulting in high-molar activity [ F]F-DA.

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Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-targeted radiotherapy of prostate cancer (PCa) has emerged recently as a promising approach to the treatment of disseminated disease. A small number of ligands have been evaluated in patients, and although early tumor response is encouraging, relapse rate is high and these compounds localize to the parotid, salivary, and lacrimal glands as well as to the kidney, leading to dose-limiting toxicities and adverse events affecting quality of life. We envision that dual-target binding ligands displaying high affinity for PSMA and appropriate affinity for human serum albumin (HSA) may demonstrate a higher therapeutic index and be suitable for treatment of PCa by targeted α-therapy.

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Aniline-derived diaryliodonium salts were synthesized and functionalized in good to excellent yields by judicious utilization of electron-withdrawing protecting groups. This simple approach opens another route to radiolabeling amino arenes in relatively complex molecules, such as flutemetamol.

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Diaryliodonium salts are powerful and widely used arylating agents in organic chemistry. Here we report a scalable, synthesis of densely functionalized diaryliodonium salts from aryl iodides under mild conditions. This two-step, one-pot process has remarkable functional group tolerance, is compatible with commonly employed acid-labile protective group strategies, avoids heavy metal and transition metal reagents, and provides a direct route to stable precursors to PET imaging agents.

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Fluorine-18 (F, T =109.7 min) is a positron-emitting isotope that has found extensive application as a radiolabel for positron emission tomography (PET). Although gaseous C-CO and C-CH are practically transported from cyclotron to radiochemistry processes, F-fluoride is routinely transported in aqueous solution because it is commonly produced by proton irradiation of O-enriched water.

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6-[(18)F]Fluorodopamine (6-[(18) F]F-DA) is a positron emission tomography radiopharmaceutical used to image sympathetic cardiac innervation and neuroendocrine tumors. Imaging with 6-[(18)F]F-DA is constrained, in part, by the bioactivity and neurotoxicity of 6-[(19)F]fluorodopamine. Furthermore, routine access to this radiotracer is limited by the inherent difficulty of incorporation of [(18)F]fluoride into electron-rich aromatic substrates.

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Many neuroendocrine tumors, such as neuroblastoma (NB), arise from neural crest cells of the sympathetic nervous system. This nerve-like phenotype has been exploited for functional imaging using radioactive probes originally designed for neuronal and adrenal medullary applications. NB imaging with meta-[(123)I]iodobenzylguanidine ([(123)I]MIBG) is limited by the emissions of (123)I, which lead to poor image resolution and challenges in quantification of its accumulation in tumors.

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Iodoarenes are important synthons for a wide range of organic transformations. Here we report a general strategy to prepare singly iodinated electron-rich aromatic compounds through the intermediacy of diaryliodonium salts. This process, which incorporates a phase separation that greatly simplifies product purification, is an attractive replacement for the Sandmeyer approach to iodoarenes that are otherwise difficult to access.

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Nitrogen heterocycles are abundant in natural products and pharmaceuticals. An emerging interest among synthetic chemists is to apply vinyl azides as a pivotal three-atom synthon for the construction of structurally complex and diverse N-heterocyclic skeletons. The unique features of the azide group connected to an alkene moiety permit vinyl azides to function as electrophiles, nucleophiles, or radical acceptors; their access to diverse reaction pathways provides great opportunities to generate highly reactive intermediates with often unusual or unconventional reactivities.

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Unlabelled: A novel synthetic approach to 6-(18)F-fluoro-3,4-dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine ((18)F-DOPA), involving the nucleophilic substitution of a diaryliodonium salt precursor with non-carrier-added (18)F-fluoride, yielded a product with a specific activity that was 3 orders of magnitude higher than the product of the conventional synthesis method, involving an electrophilic substitution of a trialkylstannane precursor with (18)F2. We performed a direct comparison of high- and low-specific-activity (18)F-DOPA in a neuroendocrine tumor model to determine whether this difference in specific activity has implications for the biologic behavior and imaging properties of (18)F-DOPA.

Methods: (18)F-DOPA was produced via the novel synthesis method, yielding (18)F-DOPA-H with a high specific activity (35,050 ± 4,000 GBq/mmol).

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Catalytic, low temperature preferential oxidation (PROX) of carbon monoxide by aqueous [5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)-2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octafluoroporphyrinato]rhodium(III) tetrasodium salt, (1[Rh(III)]) and [5,10,15,20-tetrakis(3-sulfonato-2,6-difluorophenyl)-2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octafluoroporphyrinato]rhodium(III) tetrasodium salt, (2[Rh(III)]) is reported. The PROX reaction occurs at ambient temperature in buffered (4 ≤ pH ≤ 13) aqueous solutions. Fluorination on the porphyrin periphery is shown to increase the CO PROX reaction rate, shift the metal centered redox potentials, and acidify ligated water molecules.

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For the first time it is shown that exceptionally electron-rich arene rings can be fluorinated exclusively during the reductive elimination reactions of diaryliodonium fluorides. The 5-methoxy[2.2]paracyclophan-4-yl directing group simultaneously reduces unproductive aryne chemistry and eliminates ligand exchange reactions by a combination of steric and electronic effects.

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Diaryliodonium salts are shown to undergo rapid, fluoride-promoted aryl exchange reactions at room temperature in acetonitrile. Aryl exchange is shown to be exquisitely sensitive to the concentration of fluoride ion in solution; fast exchange is observed as the fluoride concentration approaches a stoichiometric amount at 50 mM substrate concentration. The reaction is slowed, but not halted if benzene is the solvent, indicating that free fluoride ion or a four-coordinate anionic I(III) species may be responsible for the exchange.

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The use of low polarity aromatic solvents (benzene or toluene) and/or the removal of inorganic salts results in dramatically improved yields of fluorinated arenes from diaryliodonium salts. This methodology is shown to "scale down" to the conditions used typically for radiotracer synthesis.

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is provided by the cyclophane substituent on iodine(III). Computational and experimental studies demonstrate that out of plane steric bulk strongly destabilizes the reductive elimination transition state, and leads to regiochemical control. This approach should be general for high valent main group and transition metal ions.

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The potent dehydrating ability of difluoro(aryl)-lambda (3)-iodanes is exploited to develop a convenient (19)F-NMR-based aquametry method that is more sensitive than coulometric Karl Fischer titration. The key difluoro(aryl)-lambda (3)-iodane reagents are synthesized readily from commercially available and inexpensive precursors.

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Fluoride relay is used to generate exceptionally nucleophilic fluoride reagents from KF on a time scale commensurate with radiotracer synthesis.

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Selective aromatic fluorine substitution can increase the affinity of a molecule for a macromolecular recognition site through non-covalent interactions. These effects are evaluated most accurately by direct comparison of binding affinities of selectively fluorinated compounds with their corresponding hydrocarbons. In cases where structural data confirm similar binding geometries for the fluorocarbon and hydrocarbon analogues, reliable estimates for the impact of fluorination upon arene-pi.

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[structure: see text] Single enantiomer, chiral donor-acceptor metal complexes were synthesized via the self-discriminating zinc(II) complexation of a pseudoracemic mixture of donor/acceptor-substituted bisoxazoline derivatives.

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