Nuclear medicine program progress report for quarter ending December 31, 1995

In this report we describe the first resolution of the 3R-(+)-and 3S- ({minus})-methyl BMIPP methyl-branched fatty acid stereoisomers and biodistribution of the radioiodinated isomers in rats to investigate the effects of the configuration of the 3({beta})-methyl group on the organ distribution and myocardial uptake and release kinetics. Synthesesis of 3R-(+)BMIPP was accompanied by initial acylation of the thiophene template with the acid chloride of ethyl 3R- methylglutarate. The amide of the synthetic 3R-BMIPP isomer prepared S-(-)-{alpha}-methylbenzylamine exhibited identical spectral and chromatographic properties with the chromatographically more polar isomer (TLC and HPLC) which was separated from the mixture of amides prepared from reaction of the acid chloride of racemic BMIPP with the S-(-)-{alpha}-methylbenzylamine. The second less chromatographically polar amide isomer was assigned the 3S-(-)-methyl configuration. The free acids were obtained by acid hydrolysis of the amides and converted to the radioiodinated analogues. While biodistribution studies in separate groups of rats demonstrated greater myocardial uptake of 3R-BMIPP compared with the 3S-isomer values for most other tissues evaluated (blood, lungs, kidneys and thyroid) were similar, whereas the 3S-BMIPP isomer consistently showed higher liver uptake. These results were confirmed in a [l-131]-3S-BMIPP/[l-125]-3R-BMIPP dual label study and both isomers had similar myocardial wash-out curves (5-180 min). These studies suggest that [l-123]-3R-BMIPP is a candidate for clinical evaluation and may show greater myocardial uptake than the 3S-isomer and thus may require a reduced injected dose compared to racemic BMIPP