Radiosynthesis of New Carbon-11-labeled Nimesulide Analogs as Potential PET SAER Tracers for Imaging of Aromatase Expression in Breast Cancer

Abstract

Carbon-11-labeled nimesulide analogs, N-[¹¹C]methyl-N-(2-benzyloxy-4-nitrophenyl)methanesulfonamide ([¹¹C]4a), N-[¹¹C]methyl-N-[2-(4′-methylbenzyloxy)-4-nitrophenyl]methanesulfonamide ([¹¹C]4b), N-[¹¹C]methyl-N-[2-(4′-fluorobenzyloxy)-4-nitrophenyl]methanesulfonamide ([¹¹C]4c), N-[¹¹C]methyl-N-[2-(4′-nitrobenzyloxy)-4-nitrophenyl]methanesulfonamide ([¹¹C]8a), N-[¹¹C]methyl-N-[2-(β-naphthylmethoxy)-4-nitrophenyl]methanesulfonamide ([¹¹C]8b), and N-[¹¹C]methyl-N-[2-(2′-phenylbenzyloxy)-4-nitrophenyl]methanesulfonamide ([¹¹C]8c), have been synthesized as new potential positron emission tomography (PET) selective aromatase expression regulator (SAER) radiotracers for imaging of aromatase expression in breast cancer. The target tracers were prepared by N-[¹¹C]methylation of their corresponding precursors using [¹¹C]CH₃OTf under basic conditions (NaH) and isolated by reversed-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) method in 30–50% radiochemical yields decay corrected to end of bombardment (EOB) with 25–30 min overall synthesis time and 111–148 GBq/μmol specific activity at end of synthesis (EOS).

Keywords:

• Aromatase expression
• breast cancer
• imaging
• nimesulides
• positron emission tomography (PET)
• radiosynthesis

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was partially supported by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and Indiana Genomics Initiative (INGEN) of Indiana University, which is supported in part by Lilly Endowment Inc. The authors thank Dr. Bruce H. Mock and Barbara E. Glick-Wilson for their assistance in production of [¹¹C]CH₃OTf.