Synthesis and F-radiolabeling of thymidine AMBF conjugates.

In pursuit of F-labeled nucleosides for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, we report on the chemical and radiochemical synthesis of two thymidine (dT) analogs, dT-C-AMBF and dT-N-AMBF, that are radiofluorinated by isotope exchange (IEX) and studied as PET imaging agents in mice with tumor xenografts. dT-C-AMBF shows preferential, and tumor-specific, uptake over dT-N-AMBF. This work provides a new synthetic method in order to access new nucleoside tracers for PET imaging.