01 Jul 22. SINAPSE ASM winners

Congratulations to Dr Beth York and Dr Tim Morgan who both received awards for their presentations/posters at the recent SINAPSE ASM.

The SINAPSE Annual Scientific Meeting took place over the 13th and 14th June and was the first in-person meeting for SINAPSE since 2019.

Presenting at the ASM after successful submitted abstracts was Dr Beth York, Post-Doc Research Fellow, and Dr Tim Morgan, Radiochemistry R&D Postdoctoral Scientist.

 

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Dr Beth York presenting at the SINAPSE ASM 2022
Dr Beth York presenting at the SINAPSE ASM 2022

Dr York received an award for her presentation, MTsat and MTR: sensitivity to perilesional demyelination in early relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis”, in the Neurological Disease parallel session 5.

Dr York explains: Magnetisation transfer imaging may detect subtle white matter abnormalities in early relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, and aid early patient stratification. Magnetisation transfer ratio (MTR) is confounded by T1 recovery and B1 inhomogeneities. Magnetisation transfer saturation (MTsat) disentangles these effects, and provides a promising marker of myelin integrity.

White matter abnormalities adjacent to MRI-visible white matter lesions (WMLs) are associated with decreased intralesional myelin integrity in RRMS. This study aimed to determine whether MTR and/or MTsat are sensitive to early pathological change in perilesional white matter in a cohort of people with recently diagnosed relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (Future-MS).

 

We asked Dr York her thoughts on receiving this award.

“I’m honoured to have received this award at SINAPSE ASM where there were so many outstanding and interesting imaging talks.”

 

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New synthetic route towards both cis- and trans-precursors of fluoroproline and automated radiofluorination using a milder, more effective method.
New synthetic route towards both cis- and trans-precursors of fluoroproline and automated radiofluorination using a milder, more effective method.

Dr Morgan received an award for his poster displayed on day 2 of the ASM, “Automated Radiosynthesis of cis- and trans-4-[18F]Fluoro-L-proline”

Abstract: The positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracers cis- and trans¬-4-[18F]fluoro-L-proline are widely used as imaging agents to investigate various diseases associated with altered collagen biosynthesis. Several radiosyntheses have been reported for these compounds and show that the fluorination step is amenable to automation and can be carried out with high radiochemical yield. However, a limitation exists during the deprotection stage, which generally is performed manually and uses harsh conditions. This can be in the form of a single step using triflic acid at high temperature or as a two-step process: using acid to remove the Boc group and then following with sodium hydroxide to hydrolyse the methyl ester. The two-step process is difficult to implement on many automated radiochemistry systems and the use of a base hydrolysis has been shown to produce unwanted side-products. Additionally, using triflic acid for multiple runs can cause damage to tubing and valves, resulting in leaks and failed syntheses.

A tert-butyl ester precursor was proposed, as the use of two acid-sensitive protecting groups would allow for rapid and milder deprotection conditions. We report a novel approach to access a tert-butyl ester precursor for radiolabelling from readily available starting materials; the same route can also be used for the synthesis of non-radioactive cis- and trans-4-fluoro-L-proline. This tert-butyl ester precursor was used to carry out a fully automated radiosynthesis of the corresponding [18F]fluoroproline, using a single reaction vessel on a TRACERlab FXFN module. Radiofluorination using [18F]fluoride was performed successfully and the fluorinated intermediate was deprotected using 2 M HCl in a single-step, delivering the desired compound in good radiochemical yield. The use of a weaker acid and milder temperature allowed for a reproducible automated radiosynthesis and avoided any manual handling of radioactive intermediates. This new method has been successful in delivering both cis- and trans-4-fluoro-L-proline for preclinical imaging studies.

 

 

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Congratulations to Dr Beth York and Dr Tim Morgan who both received awards for their presentations/posters at the recent SINAPSE ASM.

@SINAPSECENTRE @EdinUniMedicine @EdinUniCVS @_bethyork @MSImaGE2