Metabolism of Innovative PET Tracers

PET (positron emission tomography)-tracers are molecules thatare combined with radioactive isotopes. They play an important rolein medicine imaging techniques by producing a three-dimensionalimage or map of functional processes in the body. Theseradiopharmaca, which are accumulated in certain areas of the body,give information about the metabolism of cells. Out of wide rangeof radiopharmaca, three tracers which can be used in psychiatry toelucidate neurological questions, were investigated. The purpose ofthis thesis was to find out which of these three radiopharmaca issuitable for ongoing field studies. An important issue of tracersis the stability against metabolic degradation by enzymes.Therefore the author analyzed the increase of metabolite and thedecrease of the tracer at different time points of the enzymekinetic, by using RP-HPLC. For the kinetic carboxyl-esterase wasused. The book describes how an analytical method for RP-HPLC wascreated and summarizes the results concerning the stability ofthree innovative PET-tracers. The book addresses techniciansworking in the wide spectre of PET imaging and scientists doingdrug research for nuclear medicine purposes.