A rapid and efficient preparation of [123I]radiopharmaceuticals using a small HPLC (Rocket®) column

A simplified method for the rapid and efficient preparation of [123I]radiopharmaceuticals is described. Three radiopharmaceuticals, [123I]β-CIT, [123I]MIBG and [123I]clioquinol, were synthesised and purified as model compounds. The radiotracers were labelled with iodine-123 using electrophilic oxidative conditions and purified by a compact semi-preparative reverse phase column (C-18, 3 μm, 7×53 mm, Alltima Rocket®, Alltech) using aqueous-ethanol as HPLC solvents that were directly used for radiopharmaceutical formulation. The radiochemical purity of the radioiodinated tracers as assessed by analytical HPLC was higher than 99% with specific activity higher than 3 GBq/nmol. The total preparation time of a radiotracer ranged from 40 to 60 min and, starting from 3.7 GBq of iodine-123, more than 2.5 GBq of formulated radiopharmaceuticals were available for clinical investigations.