A series of nine organometallic technetium-99m and rhenium com
plexes of glucose are
presented andcharacterized in vitro regarding their
potential as surrogates of [
18F]-2-fluoro-desoxy glucose ([
18F]-FDG). The glucose derivatives are functionalized at
positions C-1, C-2, C-3, and C-6. Different s
pacerlengths and chelating systems have been introduced at these sites. For the (radio)labeling, theorganometallic
precursors [
99mTc(H
2O)
3(CO)
3]
+ and [ReBr
3(CO)
3]
2- res
pectively have been used. Theresulting com
plexes have been characterized chemically and radiochemically. The formation of uniform
products has been observed on the macrosco
pic (Re) and no-carrier-added level (
99mTc). The Tc-99mcom
plexes revealed good inertness against ligand exchange (Cys and His) and excellent stability in
physiological buffered saline as well as in human
plasma over a
period of 24 h at 37
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C. The rheniumcom
plexes have been tested for com
petitive inhibition of the (yeast) hexokinase. Only for C-2 derivatizedglucose com
plexes with extended s
pacer functionalities
Ki values in the millimolar and sub-millimolarrange have been observed. In silico molecular docking ex
periments su
pported these ex
perimentalfindings. However, the com
petitive inhibitors are not recognized as a
pseudosubstrate of hexokinase.The cellular u
ptake of all
99mTc-com
plexes into HT-29 colon carcinoma cells via Glut1 was generallylow and uns
pecific inde
pendent of the
position at the hexose ring, the chelating systems, or the overallcharge of the corres
ponding metal com
plexes. The current results seem to
preclude the use of thesecom
pounds as [
18F]-FDG surrogates
primarily due to the low cellular u
ptake via Glut1.