Abstract (eng)
The amino acid glutamine is, besides glucose, a major nutrient for tumour cells, supplying energy and building blocks for the endogenous synthesis of biomolecules. Apart from the Warburg effect, which characterises the metabolism of the majority of tumours and refers to aerobic glycolysis despite the presence of oxygen, tumour cells can also be reprogrammed to be “glutamine addicted”. This describes a higher dependency on glutamine compared to non-malignant cells due to upregulation of various steps in the metabolic pathway. This may be an indication for using a radiolabelled glutamine analogion as an alternative to the gold standard in positron emission tomography (PET), which is 2-[18F]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-[18F]FDG). 2-[18F]FDG faces some limitations including non-specific uptake in immune cells, which is why this tracer is also applied for imaging of inflammation and infection. The aim of this thesis was to establish an automated production method of (2S,4R)-[18F]4-fluoroglutamine ([18F]4-FGln) on an ELIXYS FLEX/CHEM automated synthesizer based on two previously reported methods. This included the development of purification and quality control methods. Subsequently, the goal was to conduct in vitro [18F]4-FGln uptake studies in tumour cells and comparison with the uptake of 2-[18F]FDG and tritium-labelled glutamine.