Synthesis and in vivo stability studies of [18F]-zwitterionic phosphonium aryltrifluoroborate/indomethacin conjugates

Abstract

With the goal of developing new positron emission tomography (PET) probes for imaging inflammation in cancer tumours, we have conjugated zwitterionic phosphonium aryltrifluoroborates as fluoride captors with indomethacin, a known cyclooxygenase 2 inhibitor. The resulting conjugates have been radiolabeled by ¹⁸F–¹⁹F isotopic exchange in aqueous solutions. NMR studies combined with in vivo data show that the nature of the phosphonium substituents plays an important role on the stability of the radiotracers.