Synthesis, in vitro and in vivo evaluation of fluorine-18 labelled FE-GW405833 as a PET tracer for type 2 cannabinoid receptor imaging

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/j.bmc.2011.06.033

The type 2 cannabinoid receptor (CB₂R) is part of the endocannabinoid system and is expressed in tissues related to the immune system. As the CB₂R has a very low brain expression in non-pathological conditions, but is upregulated in

Full text of DOI:10.1016/j.bmc.2011.06.033

Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry 19 (2011) 4499–4505
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/bmc
Synthesis, in vitro and in vivo evaluation of fluorine-18 labelled
FE-GW405833 as a PET tracer for type 2 cannabinoid receptor imaging
Nele Evens a, , Caroline Vandeputte b,c, Giulio G. Muccioli d,à, Didier M. Lambert d, Veerle Baekelandt c,
Alfons M. Verbruggen a, Zeger Debyser c, Koen Van Laere b, Guy M. Bormans a,
⇑
a Laboratory for Radiopharmacy, IMIR K.U. Leuven, O&N2, Herestraat 49, Bus 821, BE-3000 Leuven, Belgium
b Division of Nuclear Medicine, IMIR K.U. Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
c Molecular Medicine, IMIR K.U. Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
d Louvain Drug Research Institute, Medicinal Chemistry Group, UCLouvain, Bruxelles, Belgium
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
The type 2 cannabinoid receptor (CB2R) is part of the endocannabinoid system and is expressed in tissues
related to the immune system. As the CB2R has a very low brain expression in non-pathological condi-
tions, but is upregulated in activated microglia, it is an interesting target for visualization of neuroinflam-
mation using positron emission tomography with a suitable radiolabeled CB2R ligand. In this study, we
radiolabelled a fluoroethyl derivative of GW405833, a well known CB2R partial agonist, with fluorine-
18 (half-life 109.8 min) by alkylation of the phenol precursor with 1-bromo-2-[18F]fluoroethane. In vitro
studies showed that FE-GW405833 behaved as a selective high affinity (27 nM) inverse agonist for hCB2R.
Received 10 May 2011
Revised 6 June 2011
Accepted 9 June 2011
Available online 16 June 2011
Keywords:
Type 2 cannabinoid receptor
MicroPET
[
18F]FE-GW405833 showed moderate initial brain uptake in mice and rats, but a slow washout from brain
18F]FE-GW405833
and plasma due to retention of a radiometabolite. Specific binding of the tracer to human CB2R was dem-
onstrated in vivo in a rat model with local CB2R overexpression in the brain. Optimized derivatives of
GW405833 that are less susceptible to metabolism will need to be developed in order to provide a useful
tracer for CB2R quantification with PET.
[
Neuroinflammation
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
atherosclerotic plaques and in endometrial inflammation.3,4
Although CB2R was initially considered to be the peripheral can-
The type 1 (CB1R) and type 2 (CB2R) cannabinoid receptor and
probably also GPR55 are receptors of the endocannabinoid system,
which also consists of endogenous ligands, such as anandamide
and 2-arachidonoyl glycerol, and proteins for their biosynthesis,
and degradation.
nabinoid receptor, it is now well accepted that CB2R are expressed
on activated microglia and macrophages in brain.5,6 Although CB2R
expression on neurons remains controversial7 a role of CB2R has
also been attributed to neurologic pathologies such as depression,8
eating disorders9 and drug abuse.10
The CB1R has been the center of attention for several years and
hence its function is better studied compared to CB2R. CB1R is
mainly expressed in the central nervous system and several PET
radioligands have been developed to investigate this receptor
allowing elucidation of its role in neuropsychiatric disorders, eat-
ing disorders and drug dependence.1
The CB2R is involved in the immune system, and expression has
been shown in spleen, lymph nodes and Peyer’s patches.2 In the
periphery, upregulation of CB2R expression has been observed in
CB2R upregulation linked to neuroinflammation is observed in
the brain of Alzheimer patients where activated microglia cluster
at b-amyloid plaques.11,12 Fernandez-Ruiz and co-workers de-
scribed upregulation of CB2R in the striatum of a rat chronic lesion
model of Huntington’s disease (HD) and both hypoxia-ischemia
and middle cerebral artery occlusion induced the expression of
CB2R-positive microglia in rat brain.13,14 Moreover, the spinal cord
of a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and pla-
ques of demyelination in multiple sclerosis patients showed an in-
crease in CB2R.15,16
Hence, a CB2R PET tracer can be a valuable research tool to ex-
plore the role and importance of CB2R in (neuro)inflammation and
to evaluate the therapeutic value of new CB2R-related drugs.
GW405833 (L-768,242) is a well known CB2R selective agonist.17
Several studies describe its anti-inflammatory, anti-nociceptive and
anti-hyperalgesic actions in animal models of neuropathic and
inflammatory pain.18,19 Indeed, besides analgesia, GW405833 also
⇑
Corresponding author. Tel.: +32 16330447; fax: +32 16330449.
E-mail addresses: Evensnele@gmail.com (N. Evens), guy.bormans@pharm.
kuleuven.be (G.M. Bormans).
O&N2, Herestraat 49, Bus 821, BE-3000 Leuven, Belgium. Tel.: +32 16330441; fax:
+32 16330449.
à
Present address: Bioanalysis and Pharmacology of Bioactive Lipids laboratory,
CHAM7230, Université Catholique de Louvain, Bruxelles, Belgium.
0968-0896/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.bmc.2011.06.033

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N. Evens et al. / Bioorg. Med. Chem. 19 (2011) 4499–4505
has inhibitory effects on gliosis in a rat neuropathic pain model.20
As CB2R agonists seem to act not only at non-neuronal sites but also
at neuronal level, they are proposed as being an interesting target
for the treatment of chronic pain.21 However, Schuelert and co-
workers described increased nociceptor activity in an osteoarthritic
knee joint rat model when treated with GW405833, but decreased
joint nociception in control animals.22
[ 1 with
18F]FE-GW405833 was obtained by alkylation of
1-bromo-2-[18F]fluoroethane in the presence of Cs2CO3 with a de-
cay corrected radiochemical yield of 33 6%, a radiochemical pur-
ity >95% (n = 5) and a specific activity of 50–100 GBq/
The overall preparation time including the synthesis of 1-bromo-2-
18F]fluoroethane was 70 min.
lmol (Fig. 1).
[
Recently, the development of several carbon-11 labelled PET
radioligands with CB2R affinity were reported.23–25 Horti et al. pro-
vided proof of principle for CB2R imaging in pathological condi-
tions with a neuroinflammatory component.25
2.2. Log D and affinity
The log D of [18F]FE-GW405833 was determined by partitioning
between 1-octanol and 0.025 M phosphate buffer pH 7.4 and was
found to be 2.8. The calculated polar surface area (cPSA) was
43.7 Å.28 These values are almost identical to those observed for
GW40583327 and are within the ideal range for blood–brain barrier
(BBB) penetration. Indeed, favourable molecular characteristics for
entering the brain are a low molecular mass (<600 Da), a cPSA less
than 90 Å2 and a log partition coefficient between 1 and 3.
Due to its longer half-life (ꢀ110 min), radiolabelling with fluo-
rine-18 allows to inject multiple subjects from the same production
batch and provides an opportunity to transport the tracer to remote
sites. Our group described the development of a fluorine-18 la-
belled CB2R selective 2-oxoquinoline derivative, that suffered from
major drawbacks such as a low radiochemical yield, a high bone
uptake and a relatively low affinity compared to its carbon-11 la-
belled counterpart.26 We recently reported carbon-11 radiolabeled
GW405833 that in combination with an adeno-associated viral vec-
tor encoding for an inactive mutant of human CB2R (hCB2R(D80N))
was evaluated as a PET reporter gene system for brain.27
In this study, we have synthesized and evaluated fluorine-18 la-
belled GW405833 as a PET tracer for the in vivo visualization of
CB2R.
The affinity of FE-GW405833 for the human CB2R (hCB2R) and
human CB1R (hCB1R) was determined in a competition binding as-
say. The affinity of FE-GW405833 for hCB1R was ꢀ10
lM and
27 nM for hCB2R. This affinity value is comparable to that de-
scribed for GW405833.19 As the Bmax of hCB2R in neuroinflamma-
tory conditions is not known it is difficult to predict whether the
affinity is high enough for sensitive detection of neuroinflamma-
tion. FE-GW405833 behaved as an inverse agonist in a [35S]-GTP
cS
assay with EC50 = 17.9 nM and Emax = ꢁ82%, values that are close to
those observed for GW405833 in the same assay. GW405833 has
been characterized both as a partial agonist and as an inverse ago-
nist depending on the assay that was used.19,29 Mancini and co-
workers reported the inverse agonistic behaviour of GW405833
in a cAMP assay turning to agonistic behaviour when the receptor
constitutive activity was abolished. GW405833 and its fluoroethyl
derivative can thus be defined as a protean agonists, that is, partial
agonists that produce a lower intrinsic efficacy than the naturally
occurring constitutively active state, thereby effectively lowering
2. Results and discussion
2.1. Synthesis and radiosynthesis
The phenol precursor
1 ((2,3-dichlorophenyl)-[5-hydroxy-2-
methyl-3-(2-morpholin-4-yl-ethyl)-indol-1-yl]-methanone) was syn-
thesized by demethylation of GW405833 with BBr3. Alkylation of 1
with 1-bromo-2-fluoroethane in the presence of potassium car-
bonate as a base provided authentic FE-GW405833 in 40% yield.
Figure 1. Radiosynthesis of [18F]FE-GW405833.

N. Evens et al. / Bioorg. Med. Chem. 19 (2011) 4499–4505
4501
Table 1
Biodistribution of [18F]FE-GW405833 in normal NMRI mice
Organ
% ID SD*
% ID/g SD$
SUV SD#
2 min
60 min
2 min
60 min
2 min
60 min
Kidneys
Urine
Liver
Spleen
Pancreas
Lungs
9.8 1.5
0.1 0.0
47.4 5.1
0.9 0.2
0.7 0.2
3.4 0.1
1.1 0.1
8.9 1.2
1.3 0.3
4.5 0.4
1.3 0.1
2.2 0.5
1.4 0.5
23.7 3.2
0.3 0.0
0.5 0.4
0.7 0.1
0.3 0.1
35.7 4.7
1.8 1.0
5.0 1.0
0.7 0.1
15.8 0.7
—
3.4 0.7
—
5.5 0.4
—
1.2 0.2
—
26.3 2.7
9.5 0.8
3.6 0.5
13.1 2.1
7.7 0.9
—
11.4 0.8
3.1 0.6
2.4 1.5
2.4 0.5
2.1 0.4
—
9.1 1.1
3.3 0.4
1.2 0.2
4.5 0.7
2.7 0.2
—
4.0 0.4
1.1 0.2
0.8 0.6
0.8 0.2
0.7 0.1
—
Heart
Intestines
Stomach
Blood
—
—
—
—
1.9 0.2
2.9 0.1
2.1 0.5
1.6 0.3
0.6 0.1
1.0 0.1
0.7 0.2
0.6 0.1
Brain
Data are expressed as mean SD; n = 4 per time point.
*
Percentage of injected dose calculated as cpm in organ/total cpm recovered.
Percentage of the injected dose per gram tissue.
Standard uptake values calculated as (radioactivity in cpm in organ/weight of the organ in g)/(total counts recovered/body weight in g.
$
#
the receptor activity, giving the impression of inverse agonistic
behavior.30
A microPET study was performed to evaluate in vivo hCB2R
binding specificity of [18F]FE-GW405833 in a rat model with local
hCB2R overexpression.27 hCB2R was overexpressed in the right stri-
atum after stereotactic injection of an adeno-associated viral (AAV)
vector encoding eGFP-T2A-hCB2R(D80N) (Fig. 3).
2.3. Ex vivo and in vivo experiments
The biodistribution of [18F]FE-GW405833 was studied in mice
at 2 and 60 min post injection (p.i.) (Table 1). A predominant hepa-
tobiliary excretion was observed with a high uptake in the liver at
2 min post injection (p.i.) (47% ID) and a significant excretion to the
intestines (36% ID at 60 min pi). Blood concentration remained
constant between 2 and 60 min p.i. probably due to the generation
of a radiometabolite with long plasma half-life. Brain uptake of
The microPET images showed absence of retention of activity in
the skull suggesting that [18F]FE-GW405833 is not defluorinated.
The time activity curve (TAC) over the left striatum showed an
initial peak and slow clearance up to about 60 min after which the
activity level remained constant in agreement with the biodistri-
bution data in mice.
The TAC over the right striatum showed a similar pattern but
with a slower clearance resulting in a factor 1.6 higher concentra-
tion than the contralateral striatum at 60 min p.i., a ratio compara-
ble to that observed for [11C]-GW405833.27
Since a control vector was injected in the contralateral hemi-
sphere and since the microPET scan was performed 34 days after
stereotactic surgery, potential unilateral uptake of the tracer due
to BBB disruption is unlikely. The activity in the left striatum was
comparable to the cerebellum level (control level). CB2R overex-
pression in the right striatum was confirmed by immunofluorescent
staining for CB2R and eGFP, which demonstrated colocalization of
both proteins (Fig. 3). Minor expression of CB2R was also detected
in CD68+ activated microglia and macrophages.
[
18F]FE-GW405833 was moderate with a value 1.3% ID at 2 min
p.i. Washout of the tracer was rather slow with still 0.7% ID being
present at 60 min p.i. None of the studied peripheral organs
showed significant retention of the tracer. The spleen, being the or-
gan with the highest endogenous CB2R expression, would be the
most likely organ to display CB2R tracer retention. The affinity of
the tracer may be insufficient to visualize the limited endogenous
splenic CB2 receptor expression. Interspecies difference with re-
gard to CB2R binding affinity between rodent and human CB2R is
not likely as GW405833 was tested on CB2R in rat spleen homog-
enates and human CB2R expressing cells and showed a comparable
affinity.19
Plasma radiometabolite analysis showed fast metabolism with
only 12% of intact tracer left at 30 min p.i. (Fig. 2). Also in brain,
the fraction of radiometabolites increased as a function of time
p.i. with only 50% of intact tracer in brain at 30 min p.i. Brain reten-
tion of this radiometabolite is probably resulting in slow brain
washout and may preclude CB2R quantification.
3. Conclusions
[
18F]FE-GW405833 was evaluated as a CB2R radioligand and
displayed high in vitro CB2R binding affinity and selectivity over
CB1R, moderate brain uptake in mice and in vivo binding to the
hCB2R. However, the presence of large fraction of radiometabolites
in brain hampers its use for neuroinflammation imaging, a feature
that may be shared by other [18F]fluoroethoxyphenyl compounds.
Although GW405833 is a promising lead compound for develop-
[
18F]FECNT, a radioligand with high affinity for the dopamine
transporter, shows in vivo dealkylation with formation of [18F]flu-
oroacetaldehyde and its oxidation product [18F]fluoroacetic acid.
These radiometabolites were found to cross the BBB and to distrib-
ute uniformally throughout the brain.31 The same radiometabolites
may be generated by O-dealkylation of [18F]FE-GW405833, thus
resulting in retention of radiometabolites in brain.
ment of
a fluorine-18 CB2R PET tracer, other radiolabeled
GW405833 derivatives that are less susceptible to generate radi-
ometabolites that cross the BBB will need to be developed.
Although plasma clearance of [11C]-GW405833 was also slow,
brain clearance was much faster with only 0.1% of ID in brain at
60 min p.i.27 whereas initial brain uptake was comparable to
that observed for [18F]FE-GW405833. For [11C]-GW405833, a
comparable fraction of radiometabolites was found in plasma
but no radiometabolites were found in brain.27 This suggests
that both tracers are metabolized by O-dealkylation but that
only in the case of [18F]FE-GW405833 BBB permeable radiome-
tabolites are generated.
4. Materials and methods
4.1. General conditions
For ascending thin layer chromatography, pre-coated alumin-
ium backed plates (Silica Gel 60 with fluorescence indicator,
0.2 mm thickness; supplied by Macherey-Nagel, Düren, Germany)

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N. Evens et al. / Bioorg. Med. Chem. 19 (2011) 4499–4505
were used and developed using mixtures of dichloromethane and
methanol or hexane and ethylacetate as mobile phase. After
evaporation of the solvent, compounds were detected under UV
light (254 nm). High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
4.2. Synthesis
4.2.1. 1-(2,3-Dichlorobenzoyl)-5-methoxy-2-methyl-3-[2-(4-mo
rpholinyl)ethyl]-1H-indole (GW405833))
analysis was performed using
a
system of
a
Merck-Hitachi
Synthesis of GW405833 was performed according to literature
methods yielding a yellow solid (yield = 61%).19 TLC: Rf = 0.6 (dichlo-
romethane with 3% CH3OH) or Rf = 0.8 (dichloromethane with 5%
L-7100 gradient pump (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) connected
to a UV-spectrometer (Merck-Hitachi L-4250 UV–VIS detector,
Merck) set at 254 nm. Data were acquired and analyzed using
RaChel (Lablogic, Sheffield, UK) or GINA Star (Raytest, Strauben-
hardt, Germany) data acquisition systems.
Molecular mass measurement was performed on a time-of-
flight mass spectrometer (LCT, Micromass, Manchester, UK)
equipped with an orthogonal electrospray ionization (ESI) inter-
face. Acquisition and processing of data was done using Masslynx
software (version 3.5, Micromass).
CH3OH). HPLC (XBridge RP18 column 5
l
m, 4.6 mm ꢂ 150 mm,
Waters; EtOH/NH4OAc 0.05 M pH 6.9 60/40; 1 ml/min): tR = 5.4 min
3
(99%). 1H NMR (DMSO) d 7.899 (1H, d, JH-H = 8.0 Hz, 4-Har), 7.704
3
3
(1H, d, JH-H = 7.0 Hz, 6-Har), 7.587 (1H, t, JH-H = 7.8 Hz, 5-Har),
3
4
7.365 (1H, d, JH-H = 8.5 Hz, 7-H), 7.031 (1H, d, JH-H = 2.3 Hz, 4-H),
3
4
6.791 (1H, dd, JH-H = 9.0 Hz and JH-H = 2.3 Hz, 6-H), 3.796 (3H, s,
3
OCH3), 3.574 (4H, t, JH-H = 4.4 Hz, 2 ꢂ NCH2CH2O), 2.766 (2H, t,
3JH-H = 7.6 Hz, CH2CH2N), 2.445–2.406 (6H, m, CH2CH2N and
2 ꢂ NCH2CH2O), 2.014 (3H, s, 2-CH3).
1H NMR spectra were recorded on a Bruker AVANCE 300 MHz
spectrometer (Bruker AG, Faellanden, Switzerland) using CDCl3 or
DMSO-d6 as solvent. The standard Bruker Topspin 1.3 software un-
der Windows XP was used. Chemical shifts are reported in parts
per million relative to tetramethylsilane (d = 0). Coupling constants
are reported in Hertz. Splitting patterns are defined by s (singlet), d
(doublet), dd (double doublet), t (triplet), q (quadruplet), quint
(quintet), sext (sextet) or m (multiplet).
4.2.2. 1-(2,3-Dichlorobenzoyl)-5-hydroxy-2-methyl-3-[2-(4-
morpholinyl)ethyl]-1H-indole (precursor for labelling, 1)
To a stirred solution of GW405833 (0.320 g, 0.715 mmol) in dry
dichloromethane (10 ml) under nitrogen at ꢁ70 °C a 1 M solution
of boron tribromide in dichloromethane (2.9 ml) was added drop-
wise over 30–45 min. The mixture was maintained at ꢁ70 °C for
Figure 2. Plasma and brain radiometabolites of [18F]FE-GW405833 in normal NMRI mice 2, 10 or 30 min after tracer injection. HPLC analysis shows the percentage of intact
tracer.

N. Evens et al. / Bioorg. Med. Chem. 19 (2011) 4499–4505
4503
Figure 3. (A) Summed image of 30–90 min post injection of [18F]FE-GW405833 in a rat model with hCB2R overexpression in the right striatum. A control vector encoding
eGFP was injected in the contralateral hemisphere. Triple immunofluorescent staining for (B) eGFP (FITC), (C) CB2R (647 nm), (D) CD68+ activated microglia and macrophages
(Alexa 555 nm) and (E) an overlay image of the same rat. Colocalization of both eGFP and CB2R was observed in the right striatum. (F) Corresponding time-activity curve of
[
18F]FE-GW405833 in left and right striatum and cerebellum at 34 days after stereotactic surgery. Activity in the right striatum was on average twice as high compared to the
contralateral hemisphere. The uptake in the latter was comparable to the uptake in the cerebellum.
1 h and then allowed to warm slowly to room temperature at
which it was stirred overnight. The reaction mixture was again
cooled to ꢁ70 °C and the excess of boron tribromide was quenched
by dropwise addition of methanol until no further reaction oc-
curred. The reaction mixture was purified by column chromatogra-
mixture was stirred for 5 h at 90 °C. Water was added (10 ml) and
the reaction mixture was extracted with dichloromethane
(3 ꢂ 20 ml), the collected dichloromethane fractions were washed
with water (30 ml) and brine (30 ml), and dried over MgSO4. The
excess solvent was evaporated and purification was done by silica
gel column chromatography using a heptane/dichloromethane
gradient (100:0–50:50) yielding FE-GW405833 as a white solid
(0.022 g, 40%). TLC: Rf = 0.1 (hexane/EtOAc 5/95) or Rf = 0.7 (dichlo-
phy on silica gel (63–200 lm particle size, 60 Å, MPBiomedicals,
Eschwege, Germany) using dichloromethane–methanol (gradient
0–5% methanol) as the eluent yielding a yellow-white solid
(0.192 g, yield = 62%). TLC: Rf = 0.6 (dichloromethane with 5%
romethane with 5% CH3OH). HPLC (XTerra RP18 column 5 lm,
CH3OH). HPLC (XTerra RP18 column 5
l
m, 4.6 mm ꢂ 250 mm,
4.6 mm ꢂ 250 mm, Waters; CH3CN (A)/NH4OAc 0.05 M pH 6.9 (B)
lineair gradient from 95% B to 5% B in 20 min, 5% B 5 min; 1
ml/min): tR = 21.2 min (99%). 1H NMR (CDCl3) d 7.657–7.625 (1H,
m, 4-Har), 7.375–7.355 (3H, m, 7-H/5-Har/6-Har), 6.977 (1H, d,
Waters; CH3CN/NH4OAc 0.05 M pH 6.9 60/40; 1 ml/min):
tR = 6.1 min (98%) 1H NMR (DMSO) d 9.315 (1H, s, 5-OH), 7.881
3
4
(1H, dd, JH-H = 8.0 Hz and JH-H = 1.4 Hz, 4-Har), 7.672 (1H, dd,
3JH-H = 7.6 Hz and JH-H = 1.4 Hz, 6-Har), 7.567 (1H, t, JH-H = 7.8 Hz,
4JH-H = 2.3 Hz, 4-H), 6.769 (1H, dd, JH-H = 9.0 Hz and JH-H = 2.4 Hz,
4
3
3
4
3
2
3
5-Har), 7.325 (1H, d, JH-H = 8.1 Hz, 7-H), 6.833 (1H, d,
6-H), 4.767 (2H, dt, JH-F = 47.4 Hz, JH-H = 4.1 Hz, OCH2CH2F),
4JH-H = 2.3 Hz, 4-H), 6.622 (1H, dd, JH-H = 8.9 Hz and JH-H = 2.3 Hz,
6-H), 3.575 (4H, t, 2 ꢂ NCH2CH2O), 2.700 (2H, t, CH2CH2N),
2.434–2.365 (6H, m, CH2CH2N and 2 ꢂ NCH2CH2O), 1.966 (3H, s,
2-CH3). MS (ES)+ Accurate mass: [C22H22Cl2N2O3+H]+ theoretical
mass 433.1080 Da and found 433.1070 Da.
4.255 (2H, dt, JH-F = 27.8 Hz, JH-H = 4.1 Hz, OCH2CH2F), 3.751 (4H,
3
4
2
3
3
3
t, JH-F = 4.5 Hz, 2 ꢂ NCH2CH2O), 2.803 (2H, t, JH-H = 8.1 Hz,
CH2CH2N), 2.541–2.486 (6H, m, CH2CH2N and 2 ꢂ NCH2CH2O),
2.146 (3H, s, 2-CH3). MS (ES)+ Accurate mass: [C24H25Cl2FN2O3+H]+
theoretical mass 479.1299 Da and found 479.1286 Da.
4.2.3. 1-(2,3-Dichlorobenzoyl)-5-(2-fluorethoxy)-2-methyl-3-[2-
(4-morpholinyl)ethyl]-1H-indole (reference product, FE-
GW405833)
To a solution of 1 (0.050 g, 0.115 mmol) in dimethylformamide
(10 ml) potassium carbonate (0.032 g, 0.230 mmol) and 1-bromo-
2-fluoroethane (0.022 g, 0.173 mmol) were added and the reaction
4.3. Radiosynthesis
4.3.1. Synthesis of 1-bromo-2-[18F]fluoroethane and [18F]FE-
GW405833
1-Bromo-2-[18F]fluoroethane was synthesized according to
methods describedby Chitneni et al.32 1-Bromo-2-[18F]fluoroethane

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N. Evens et al. / Bioorg. Med. Chem. 19 (2011) 4499–4505
was distilled with a stream of helium and passed through an ascarite
column (6 mm ꢂ 150 mm) in a reaction vial containing 200 g 1 and
2–4 mg Cs2CO3 in 200 l DMF. The reaction mixture was heated at
90 °C for 2 min, diluted with 1.8 ml ammonium acetate buffer
0.05 M pH 6.9 containing 30% ethanol and injected onto an XBridge
34 after stereotactic injection of the vector. Prior to small animal
PET imaging, rats were anesthetized using 3% isoflurane in 2.0 L/
min oxygen. A dynamic acquisition was started immediately after
IV injection of approximately 37 MBq of the tracer. For each sub-
ject, images were spatially normalized to a stereotactic space and
analyzed using a predefined volume-of-interest approach (VOI).
The procedure of spatial normalization and its validation have
been described previously.37
l
l
RP18 column (5
l
m, 4.6 mm ꢂ 150 mm; Waters) which was eluted
with 0.05 M ammonium acetate buffer (pH 6.9)/EtOH (65:35 v/v,
1 ml/min), tR = 11.5 min.
4.3.2. Quality control
4.9. Histology
Quality control for
FE-GW405833 as a reference was done by HPLC on an XTerra
RP18 column (5
[
18F]FE-GW405833 using authentic
The rat was sacrificed with an intraperitoneal injection of pen-
tobarbital followed by a transcardial perfusion with 4% paraformal-
dehyde in PBS. After removal of the brain and overnight
l
m, 4.6 mm ꢂ 250 mm, Waters) eluted with
0.05 M ammonium acetate buffer pH 6.9/acetonitrile (40:60 v/v,
1 ml/min), tR = 9.9 min.
postfixation, 50 lm coronal sections were made using a vibratome
(Microm, Walldorf, Germany). For immunofluorescent staining,
floating sections were washed and incubated overnight with anti-
bodies raised against eGFP (chicken, 1:1000, Aves Labs, Tigard,
Oregon, USA), CB2R (rabbit, 1:1000, Cayman Chemical) and CD68
(mouse, 1:2000, Chemicon, Millipore, Brussels, Belgium) in 10%
donkey serum. After washing, the sections were incubated for 2 h
with fluorescently labeled donkey anti-chicken antibody (FITC,
Jackson Immunoresearch 1:400), donkey anti-mouse (Alexa
555 nm, Invitrogen, merelbeke, Belgium, 1:500) and donkey anti-
rabbit (647 nm, Invitrogen, merelbeke, Belgium, 1:500). Finally
the cell nuclei were stained with 40,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole
(DAPI). Immunofluorescence analysis was done with the AXIO Im-
ager Z1 of Zeiss (Zaventem, Belgium).
4.4. Competition binding assay and [35S]-GTP
c
S assay
S assay were
The competition binding assay and [35S]-GTP
c
done according to previously described methods.33
4.5. Octanol-buffer distribution coefficient
Determination of the distribution coefficient of [18F]FE-GW
405833 by partitioning between 1-octanol and 0.025 M phosphate
buffer pH 7.4 was done according to previously described
methods.32
4.6. Biodistribution studies
Acknowledgments
All animal experiments were carried out in compliance with the
national laws relating to the conduct of animal experimentation
and approved by the local Animal Ethics Committee. All biodistri-
bution studies were conducted in male NMRI mice (37–50 g). Mice
were anesthetized with isoflurane (2% in oxygen). The solution of
the HPLC purified product was diluted with saline to a concentra-
This research is funded by FWO-Vlaanderen grant G0775.10N
and a Ph.D. grant of the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation
through Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT-Vlaanderen).
We thank Peter Vermaelen and Ann Van Santvoort for their skillful
help with the animal experiments.
tion of approximately 6 MBq/ml. An aliquot of 100 ll was injected
via a tail vein. The animals were sacrificed by decapitation and the
organs and body parts were dissected and weighed. The activity in
the dissected organs and blood was measured using a gamma
counter. For calculation of total blood radioactivity, blood mass
was assumed to be 7% of the body mass.34
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