3-Substituted 1,5-Diaryl-1 H-1,2,4-triazoles as Prospective PET Radioligands for Imaging Brain COX-1 in Monkey. Part 2: Selection and Evaluation of [C]PS13 for Quantitative Imaging.

In our preceding paper (Part 1), we identified three 1,5-bis-diaryl-1,2,4-triazole-based compounds that merited evaluation as potential positron emission tomography (PET) radioligands for selectively imaging cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) in monkey and human brain, namely, 1,5-bis(4-methoxyphenyl)-3-(alkoxy)-1 H-1,2,4-triazoles bearing a 3-methoxy (PS1), a 3-(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy) (PS13), or a 3-fluoromethoxy substituent (PS2). PS1 and PS13 were labeled from phenol precursors by O-C-methylation with [C]iodomethane and PS2 by O-F-fluoroalkylation with [H,F]fluorobromomethane. Here, we evaluated these PET radioligands in monkey. All three radioligands gave moderately high uptake in brain, although [H,F]PS2 also showed undesirable radioactivity uptake in skull. [C]PS13 was selected for further evaluation, mainly based on more favorable brain kinetics than [C]PS1. Pharmacological preblock experiments showed that about 55% of the radioactivity uptake in brain was specifically bound to COX-1. An index of enzyme density, V, was well identified from serial brain scans and from the concentrations of parent radioligand in arterial plasma. In addition, V values were stable within 80 min, suggesting that brain uptake was not contaminated by radiometabolites. [C]PS13 successfully images and quantifies COX-1 in monkey brain, and merits further investigation for imaging COX-1 in monkey models of neuroinflammation and in healthy human subjects.