Design, Synthesis, and Evaluation of a Low-Molecular-Weight 11C-Labeled Tetrazine for Pretargeted PET Imaging Applying Bioorthogonal in Vivo Click Chemistry

A low-molecular-weight tetrazine labeled with the short-lived positron emitter carbon-11 was developed as a bioorthogonal PET probe for pretargeted imaging. A method for efficient and fast synthesis of this imaging agent is presented using radiolabeling of a readily available precursor. High reactivity with trans-cyclooctenes was observed and in vivo investigations including PET/MR scanning showed homogeneous biodistribution, good metabolic stability, and rapid excretion in naive mice. These properties are key to the success of bioorthogonal (11)C-PET imaging, which has been shown in a simple pretargeting experiment using TCO-modified mesoporous silica nanoparticles. Overall, this (11)C-labeled tetrazine represents a highly versatile and advantageous chemical tool for bioorthogonal PET imaging and enables pretargeting approaches using carbon-11 for the first time.