Synthesis and in vivo evaluation of [11C]tucatinib for HER2-targeted PET imaging

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Tucatinib is a selective human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) tyrosine kinase inhibitor approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2020 for HER2-positive lesions in metastatic breast cancer patients, including CNS metastases. In this article, we attempted to develop the first small molecule, blood–brain-barrier (BBB) penetrant HER2 PET imaging probe based on tucatinib. [11C]tucatinib was synthesized via a Stille-coupling from the respective trimethylstannyl precursor and its biodistribution was evaluated in NMRI nude mice bearing HER2-overexpressing human ovarian cancer cells (SKOV-3). No significant tumor accumulation was observed despite its high affinity for HER-2 receptors (IC50 = 6.9 nM). High liver and intestinal uptake indicate that [11C]tucatinib is too lipophilic to be used as a tumor targeting PET tracer. Therefore, chemical modifications of [11C]tucatinib are needed to increase the polarity for tumor imaging. Tucatinib as an FDA approved drug is still an interesting platform to develop the first small molecule HER2-selective PET tracer. The study highlights the differences between a drug, which needs to be effective, and an imaging agent, which is dependent on contrast.

Original languageEnglish
Article number129088
JournalBioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters
Volume80
Number of pages5
ISSN0960-894X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s)

    Research areas

  • Breast cancer, Carbon-11, HER2, PET imaging, Radiolabeling, Tucatinib

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