Methods for (11) C- and (18) F-labelling of amino acids and derivatives for positron emission tomography imaging.

The different concepts realized for the synthesis of (11) C- and (18) F-labelled amino acids are summarized. Carbon-11 enables principally authentic radiolabelling of natural occurring amino acids by substituting one of the skeleton carbons by the radionuclide. Fluorine-18 is a foreign element for natural amino acids. Because of its advantageous nuclidic properties for positron emission tomography, however, it becomes increasingly important in molecular imaging, also with amino acid analogues. Especially in the last decade, considerable progress has been made with the radiosynthesis of (18) F-labelled amino acids that are now clinically approved, and thus assure their availability. In contrast, the synthetic possibilities with (11) C-labelled amino acids are more limited because of the short half-life of carbon-11 which also hampers their wide spread use.