Tc-(EDDA/tricine)-HYNIC-GnRH analogue as a potential imaging probe for diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is a serious threat to men's health, so it is necessary to develop the techniques for early detection of this malignancy. Radiolabeled peptides are the useful tools for diagnosis of prostate cancer. In this research, we designed a new HYNIC-conjugated GnRH analogue and labeled it by Tc with tricine/EDDA as coligands. We used aminohexanoic acid (Ahx) as a hydrocarbon linker to generate Tc-(tricine/EDDA)-HYNIC-Ahx-[DLys ]GnRH. The radiopeptide exhibited high radiochemical purity and stability in solution and serum. Two human prostate cancer cell lines LN-CaP and DU-145 were used for cellular experiments. The binding specificity and affinity of radiopeptide for LN-CaP were superior to DU-145 cells. The K values for LN-CaP and DU-145 cells were 41.91 ± 7.03 nM and 55.96 ± 10.56 nM, respectively. High kidney uptake proved that the main excretion route of radiopeptide was through the urinary system. The tumor/muscle ratio of Tc-HYNIC-Ahx-[DLys ]GnRH was 4.14 at 1 hr p.i. that decreased to 2.41 at 4 hr p.i. in LN-CaP tumor-xenografted nude mice. The blocking experiment revealed that the tumor uptake was receptor-mediated. The lesion was visualized clearly using Tc-[DLys ]GnRH at 1 hr p.i. Accordingly, this research highlights the capability of Tc-(tricine/EDDA)-HYNIC-Ahx-[DLys ]GnRH peptide as a promising agent for GnRHR-expressing tumor imaging.