Automated synthesis of 1-[11C]acetoacetate on a TRASIS AIO module

We automated radiochemical synthesis of 1-[11C]acetoacetate in a commercially available radiochemistry module, TRASIS AllInOne by [11C]carboxylation of the corresponding enolate anion generated in situ from isopropenylacetate and MeLi, and purified by ion-exchange column resins.1-[11C]acetoacetate was synthesized with high radiochemical purity (95%) and specific activity (~ 66.6 GBq/µmol, n = 30) with 35% radiochemical yield, decay corrected to end of synthesis. The total synthesis required ~ 16 min. PET imaging studies were conducted with 1-[11C]acetoacetate in vervet monkeys to validate the radiochemical synthesis. Tissue uptake distribution was similar to that reported in humans.