Preliminary investigation of V-labeled VO(acac) for cancer imaging: An initial proof-of-concept study.

In this preliminary study, a procedure for synthesizing novel PET radiotracer vanadium-48-labeled-vanadyl acetylacetonate was developed, including radioisotope production via cyclotron, separation of V, chelation as VO(acac), and assessment through in vitro cellular studies. We employed the beam-stop setup in a cyclotron as the target holder to irradiate titanium foils in the reaction of Ti (p,n)V. The radioisotope production rate was 4.84 ± 0.67 μCi/μA-h. Overall radiochemical yield was 12.86 ± 0.51% with gamma-ray spectroscopy showing no detectable contaminant peaks. HPLC of VO(acac) showed a retention time (1:48) corresponding closely to that (1:50) of commercial VO(acac), verifying the successful synthesis of VO(acac). In vitro cellular studies demonstrated radiotracer uptake and saturation around 0.48 nM. These studies pave the way for improving methodologies and in vivo experiments, including imaging studies, in future investigations.