Functionalization of hydroxy compounds with nitrilotriacetic acid for technetium-99m chelation: excretory properties of the radiolabelled chelates.

Substituted monoanilides of nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) have gained much popularity in recent years as an important class of ligands for technetium-99m (99mTc) radiopharmaceutical preparations used in liver imaging and function studies. We were interested in investigating the properties of the corresponding ester analogues of this important class of ligands and for this study cyclohexanol was selected as a hydroxy component, which on condensation with nitrilotriacetic acid in the presence of acetic anhydride, furnished the monoester, N-cyclohexyloxycarbonylmethyl iminodiacetic acid 4 and the corresponding diester 5. Phenol on similar condensation produced mainly the diester, N,N-di(phenyloxycarbonylmethyl) aminoacetic acid 2, with traces of the corresponding monoester 7. A reinvestigation of the well known condensation reaction of aniline with nitrilotriacetic acid revealed that in addition to the reported monoanilide, N-phenylcarbamoylmethyl imino diacetic acid 3, the corresponding dianilide 6 was also produced in appreciable amount. The ester ligands 2, 4, 5 after 99mTc chelation exhibited good in vitro and in vivo stabilities. The biodistribution characteristics of these radiolabelled esters and amides were very similar showing thereby that esterification with NTA could be an effective method for converting alcohols to 99mTc-radiopharmaceuticals without generating any unusual properties because of the ester linkage. Residual radiopharmaceutical concentration after i.v. administration of these amide and ester 99mTc chelates at 30 min in blood, urine, liver, kidney and intestine were correlated with their lipophilicities and during this correlation it was observed that in addition to lipophilicity the anionic strength of these chelates is also an important determinant in governing their biodistribution. The ester ligand 4 after 99mTc chelation showed ultrafast hepatobiliary kinetics and was therefore compared in a rabbit model with a standard hepatobiliary radiopharmaceutical 99mTc-N-(p-butylphenylcarbamoyl methyl) iminodiacetic acid (99mTc-BIDA) by gamma-camera scintigraphy to investigate the potential of the former for clinical studies.