(18)F-click labeling of a bombesin antagonist with an alkyne-(18)F-ArBF(3) (-): in vivo PET imaging of tumors expressing the GRP-receptor.

A clickable alkyne-modified arylborimidine is rapidly converted in 15 minutes to a highly polar (18)F-aryltrifluoroborate anion ((18)F-ArBF(3) (-)) at high specific activity. Following labeling, the alkyne-(18)F-ArBF(3) (-) was conjugated to the peptide bombesin (BBN) within 25 minutes in a second step without need for prior work-up making this one-pot-two-step method easy, user-friendly, and generally applicable. Bombesin was chosen to provide functional PET images of prostate cancer xenografts in mice of which there are few. Whereas BBN is labeled to provide some of the first in vivo tumor images based on this technique, click-labeling is recognized for its generality and broad substrate scope. Hence these results are likely to be useful for click labeling most peptides and other biomolecules.

Substituent effects on aryltrifluoroborate solvolysis in water: implications for Suzuki-Miyaura coupling and the design of stable (18)F-labeled aryltrifluoroborates for use in PET imaging.

Whereas electron withdrawing substituents retard the rate of aryltrifluoroborate solvolysis, electron-donating groups enhance it. Herein is presented a Hammett analysis of the solvolytic lability of aryltrifluoroborates where log(k(solv)) values correlate to sigma values with a rho value of approximately -1. This work provides a predictable rubric for tuning the reactivity of boron for several uses including (18)F-labeled PET reagents and has mechanistic implications for ArBF(3)-enhanced ligandless metal-mediated cross coupling reactions with aryltrifluoroborates.

A cofactor approach to copper-dependent catalytic antibodies.

A strategy for the preparation of semisynthetic copper(II)-based catalytic metalloproteins is described in which a metal-binding bis-imidazole cofactor is incorporated into the combining site of the aldolase antibody 38C2. Antibody 38C2 features a large hydrophobic-combining site pocket with a highly nucleophilic lysine residue, Lys(H93), that can be covalently modified. A comparison of several lactone and anhydride reagents shows that the latter are the most effective and general derivatizing agents for the 38C2 Lys residue. A bis-imidazole anhydride (5) was efficiently prepared from N-methyl imidazole. The 38C2-5-Cu conjugate was prepared by either (i) initial derivatization of 38C2 with 5 followed by metallation with CuCl2, or (ii) precoordination of 5 with CuCl2 followed by conjugation with 38C2. The resulting 38C2-5-Cu conjugate was an active catalyst for the hydrolysis of the coordinating picolinate ester 11, following Michaelis-Menten kinetics [kcat(11) = 2.3 min(-1) and Km(11) 2.2 mM] with a rate enhancement [kcat(11)k(uncat)(11)] of 2.1 x 10(5). Comparison of the second-order rate constants of the modified 38C2 and the Cu(II)-bis-imidazolyl complex k(6-CuCl2) gives a rate enhancement of 3.5 x 10(4) in favor of the antibody complex with an effective molarity of 76.7 M, revealing a significant catalytic benefit to the binding of the bis-imidazolyl ligand into 38C2.