Technetium Nitrido Complexes of Tetradentate Thiosemicarbazones: Kit-Based Radiolabeling, Characterization, and In Vivo Evaluation

Cormac A.A. Kelderman, Rachel C. Maclean, Ingebjørg N. Hungnes, Patrick R.W.J. Davey, Ekaterina Salimova, Michael de Veer, Natasha Patel, Michelle T. Ma, Brett M. Paterson*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Bis(thiosemicarbazone) and pyridylhydrazone-thiosemicarbazone chelators have demonstrated utility in nuclear medicine. In particular, the 64Cu2+ complexes have been extensively developed for hypoxia imaging and molecular imaging of peptide and protein markers of disease. However, the chemistry and application of bis(thiosemicarbazone) and pyridylhydrazone-thiosemicarbazone chelators in combination with 99mTc, the most widely used radionuclide in nuclear medicine, is underexplored. Herein, a series of bis(thiosemicarbazone) and pyridylhydrazone-thiosemicarbazone chelators were radiolabeled with nitrido-technetium-99m in an optimized one-pot synthesis from [99mTc]TcO4-. Optimization of the radiochemical syntheses allowed for production of the complexes in >90% radiochemical conversion with apparent molar activities of 3.3-5 GBq/μmol. Competition experiments demonstrated the excellent stability of the complexes. The nitrido-technetium-99 complexes were synthesized, and the chemical identities were investigated using mass spectrometry, spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations. Complexation of nitrido-rhenium(V) was achieved with the N4-dialkylated bis(thiosemicarbazones). Planar imaging and ex vivo biodistribution studies of the five 99mTc complexes were conducted on healthy BALB/c mice to determine in vivo behavior. The lipophilic nature of the complexes resulted in uptake of 1.6-5.7% ID g-1 in the brain at 2 min postinjection and retention of 0.4-1.7% ID g-1 at 15 min postinjection. The stability of the complexes and the biodistribution data demonstrate that these chelators are ideal platforms for future production of radiopharmaceutical candidates.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)20791-20805
Number of pages15
JournalINORGANIC CHEMISTRY
Volume62
Issue number50
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Dec 2023

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