Name: optimization of radiochemical reactions using droplet arrays
Uploaded: 2021-02-12T14:15:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Optimization of Radiochemical Reactions using Droplet Arrays at JoVE.com

We thank the UCLA Biomedical Cyclotron Facility and Dr. Roger Slavik and Dr. Giuseppe Carlucci for generously providing [18F]fluoride for these studies and the UCLA NanoLab for support with equipment for chip fabrication.

CAUTION: This protocol involves the handling of radioactive materials. Experiments should not be undertaken without the necessary training and personal protective equipment and approval from the radiation safety office at your organization. Experiments should be performed behind radiation shielding, preferably in a ventilated hot cell
1. Fabrication of multi-reaction chips
NOTE: Batches of multi-reaction microdroplet chips are fabricated from 4&#34; silicon wafers usi...

<ol>
	<li>Matthews, P. M., Rabiner, E. A., Passchier, J., Gunn, R. N. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Positron+emission+tomography+molecular+imaging+for+drug+development.">Positron emission tomography molecular imaging for drug development.</a> British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 73 (2), 175-186 (2012).</li><li>Piel, M., Vernaleken, I., R&#246;sch, F. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Positron+emission+tomography+in+CNS+drug+discovery+and+drug+monitoring.">Positron emission tomography in CNS drug discovery and drug monitoring.</a> Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 57 (22), 9232-9258 (2014).</li><li>Cherry, S. R., Sorenson, J. A., Phelps, M. 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A. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Microfluidics+in+radiopharmaceutical+chemistry.">Microfluidics in radiopharmaceutical chemistry.</a> Nuclear Medicine and Biology. 40 (6), 776-787 (2013).</li><li>Keng, P. Y., van Dam, R. M. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Digital+microfluidics:+A+new+paradigm+for+radiochemistry.">Digital microfluidics: A new paradigm for radiochemistry.</a> Molecular Imaging. 14, 579-594 (2015).</li><li>Wang, J., Chao, P. H., Janet, S., van Dam, R. 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M. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=A+novel+multi-reaction+microdroplet+platform+for+rapid+radiochemistry+optimization.">A novel multi-reaction microdroplet platform for rapid radiochemistry optimization.</a> RSC Advances. 9 (35), 20370-20374 (2019).</li><li>Sergeev, M., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Performing+radiosynthesis+in+microvolumes+to+maximize+molar+activity+of+tracers+for+positron+emission+tomography.">Performing radiosynthesis in microvolumes to maximize molar activity of tracers for positron emission tomography.</a> Communications Chemistry. 1 (1), 10 (2018).</li><li>Pascali, G., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Optimization+of+nucleophilic+18F+radiofluorinations+using+a+microfluidic+reaction+approach.">Optimization of nucleophilic 18F radiofluorinations using a microfluidic reaction approach.</a> Nature Protocols. 9 (9), 2017-2029 (2014).</li><li>Lisova, K., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Microscale+radiosynthesis,+preclinical+imaging+and+dosimetry+study+of+[18F]AMBF3-TATE:+A+potential+PET+tracer+for+clinical+imaging+of+somatostatin+receptors.">Microscale radiosynthesis, preclinical imaging and dosimetry study of [18F]AMBF3-TATE: A potential PET tracer for clinical imaging of somatostatin receptors.</a> Nuclear Medicine and Biology. 61, 36-44 (2018).</li><li>Wang, J., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=High-throughput+radio-TLC+analysis.">High-throughput radio-TLC analysis.</a> Nuclear Medicine and Biology. 82-83, 41-48 (2020).</li><li>Dooraghi, A. 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M. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Green+and+efficient+synthesis+of+the+radiopharmaceutical+[18F]FDOPA+using+a+microdroplet+reactor.">Green and efficient synthesis of the radiopharmaceutical [18F]FDOPA using a microdroplet reactor.</a> Reaction Chemistry &amp; Engineering. 5 (2), 320-329 (2020).</li><li>Lisova, K., Wang, J., Rios, A., van Dam, R. M. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Adaptation+and+optimization+of+[F-18]+Florbetaben+([F-18]+FBB)+radiosynthesis+to+a+microdroplet+reactor.">Adaptation and optimization of [F-18] Florbetaben ([F-18] FBB) radiosynthesis to a microdroplet reactor.</a> Journal of Labelled Compounds and Radiopharmaceuticals. 62, 353-354 (2019).</li><li>Wang, J., Chao, P. H., Slavik, R., van Dam, R. M. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Multi-GBq+production+of+the+radiotracer+[18F]fallypride+in+a+droplet+microreactor.">Multi-GBq production of the radiotracer [18F]fallypride in a droplet microreactor.</a> RSC Advances. 10 (13), 7828-7838 (2020).</li></ol>

Due to limitations of conventional radiochemistry systems that allow only one or a small number of reactions per day and consume a significant quantity of reagents per data point, only a tiny portion of the overall reaction parameter space can be explored in practice, and many times results are reported with no repeats (n=1). Compared to conventional systems, this multi-reaction droplet radiosynthesis platform makes it practical to accomplish more comprehensive and rigorous studies of radiosynthesis conditions while cons...

Positron-emission tomography (PET) radiopharmaceuticals are widely used as research tools to monitor specific in vivo biochemical processes and study diseases, and for the development of new drugs and therapies. Moreover, PET is a critical tool for diagnosing or staging disease and monitoring a patient&#39;s response to therapy1,2,3. Due to the short half-life of PET radioisotopes (e.g., 110 min for fluorine-18-labeled radiopharmaceuticals) and radiation hazard, these compounds are prepared using specialized automated systems operating behind radiation shielding and must be prepared just before use.
Current systems used to synthesize radiopharmaceuticals are designed to produce large batches that are divided up into many individual doses to share the production cost. While current systems are suitable for the production of widely used radiotracers like [18F]FDG (because multiple patient scans and research experiments can be scheduled in a single day), these systems can be wasteful for the production of novel radiotracers during early-stage development, or less commonly used radiotracers. Volumes that conventional systems use are typically in the 1-5 mL range, and the reactions require precursor amounts in the 1-10 mg range. Furthermore, using conventional radiosynthesizers is generally cumbersome during optimization studies since the apparatus becomes contaminated after use and the user must wait for radioactivity to decay before performing the next experiment. Aside from equipment cost, the cost of the radioisotope and reagents can, therefore, become very substantial for studies requiring production of multiple batches. This can occur, for example, during the optimization of synthesis protocols for novel radiotracers to achieve sufficient yield and reliability for initial in vivo imaging studies.
Microfluidic technologies have been increasingly used in radiochemistry to capitalize on several advantages over conventional systems4,5,6. Microfluidic platforms, including those based on 1-10 &#181;L reaction volumes7,8,9, have shown a significant reduction of reagent volumes and consumption of expensive precursors, as well as short reaction times. These reductions lead to lower costs, faster heating and evaporation steps, shorter and more straightforward downstream purification, an overall &#34;greener&#34; chemistry process10, and higher molar activity of the produced radiotracers11. These improvements make it more practical to perform more extensive optimization studies by lowering the reagent cost of each synthesis. Further benefits can be achieved by performing multiple experiments from a single batch of radioisotope in a single day. For example, microfluidic flow chemistry radiosynthesizers operating in &#34;discovery mode&#34; can sequentially perform dozens of reactions, each using only 10s of &#181;L reaction volume12.
Inspired by these advantages, a multi-reaction droplet array chip in which microvolume reactions are confined to an array of surface-tension traps on a silicon surface, created using a patterned Teflon coating, was developed. These chips enable multiple reactions at the 1-20 &#181;L scale to be performed simultaneously, opening the possibility to explore 10s of different reaction conditions per day, each with multiple replicates. In this paper, the utility of this new high-throughput approach for performing rapid and low-cost radiochemistry optimizations is demonstrated. Using multi-reaction droplet chips allows for convenient exploration of the impact of reagent concentrations and reaction solvent, and the use of multiple chips could enable the study of reaction temperature and time, all while consuming very low amounts of precursor.

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>2,3-dimethyl-2-butanol (thexyl alcohol)</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>594-60-5</td>
			<td>98%</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Acetone</td>
			<td>KMG Chemicals</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Cleanroom LP grade</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ammonium formate (NH4HCO2)</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>540-69-2</td>
			<td>97%</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anhydrous acetonitrile (MeCN)</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>75-05-8</td>
			<td>99.80%</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ceramic heater</td>
			<td>Watlow</td>
			<td>Utramic CER-1-01-0093</td>
			<td>25 mm x 25 mm</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Cerenkov imaging chamber</td>
			<td>Custom built</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Other instruments can be used for TLC plate readout including: small animal in vivo optical imaging system, 2D radio-TLC scanner, 1D radio-TLC scanner</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DI water</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>7732-18-5</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Disposable transfer pipets, 3 mL</td>
			<td>Falcon</td>
			<td>13-680-50</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dose calibrator</td>
			<td>Capintec, Inc.</td>
			<td>CRC-25 PET</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Fallypride</td>
			<td>ABX Advanced Biochemical Compounds</td>
			<td>1560.0010.000</td>
			<td>Fallypride reference standard, &#62;95%</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>[18F]fluoride in [18O]H2O</td>
			<td>UCLA Ahmanson Biomedical Cyclotron Facility</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Due to short half-life this must be obtained from local radiochemistry lab or commercial radiopharmacy</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Glass cover plates (76.2 mm x 50.8 mm x 1 mm thick)</td>
			<td>C&#38;A Scientific</td>
			<td>6101</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Headway spin coater</td>
			<td>Headway Research, Inc.</td>
			<td>PWM50-PS-R790 Sipinner system</td>
			<td>PWM50-control box, PS-motor, R790-bowl</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>High temperature oven</td>
			<td>Carbolite</td>
			<td>HTCR 6 28</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Hot plate</td>
			<td>Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td>Super-Nuova HP133425</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Isopropanol (IPA)</td>
			<td>KMG Chemicals</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Cleanroom LP grade</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Mask aligner</td>
			<td>Karl Suss</td>
			<td>MA/BA6</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Methanol (MeOH)</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>67-56-1</td>
			<td>&#8805;99.9%</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Microcentrifuge tube</td>
			<td>Eppendorf</td>
			<td>0030 123.301</td>
			<td>500 &#181;L, colorless, polypropylene</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Micropipette (0.5-10 &#181;L)</td>
			<td>Labnet</td>
			<td>BioPette P3940-10</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Micropipette (100-1000 &#181;L)</td>
			<td>Labnet</td>
			<td>BioPette P3940-1000</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Micropipette (10-100 &#181;L)</td>
			<td>Labnet</td>
			<td>BioPette P3940-100</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Micropipette tips (0.1-10 &#181;L)</td>
			<td>USA Scientific Inc Tips</td>
			<td>11113810</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Micropipette tips (2-200 &#181;L)</td>
			<td>BrandTech</td>
			<td>13-889-143</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Micropipette tips (50-1000 &#181;L)</td>
			<td>BrandTech</td>
			<td>13-889-145</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Photoresist developer solution</td>
			<td>MicroChem</td>
			<td>MEGAPOSIT MF-26A</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Positive photoresist</td>
			<td>MicroChem</td>
			<td>MEGAPOSIT 220-7.0</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Reactive-ion etcher (RIE)</td>
			<td>Oxford Instruments</td>
			<td>Plasma Lab 80 Plus</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Silicon wafer cutter</td>
			<td>Euro Tool</td>
			<td>CSCB-431.00</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Silicon wafer; 4&#34; diameter</td>
			<td>Silicon Valley Microelectronics Inc.&#160;</td>
			<td>0017227-048</td>
			<td>P type, boron doped, thickness 525 &#177; 25 &#181;m</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Teflon AF 2400</td>
			<td>Chemours&#160;</td>
			<td>D14896765</td>
			<td>1% solids</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tetrabutylammonium bicarbonate (TBAHCO3)</td>
			<td>ABX Advanced Biochemical Compounds</td>
			<td>808</td>
			<td>Aqueous solution stabilized with ethanol, 0.075 M</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Themal conducting paste</td>
			<td>OMEGA</td>
			<td>OT-201-2</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>TLC plates</td>
			<td>Merck KGaA</td>
			<td>1.05554.0001</td>
			<td>Silica gel 60 F254, 50 mm x 60 mm, aluminum back</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tosyl-fallypride</td>
			<td>ABX Advanced Biochemical Compounds</td>
			<td>1550.004.000</td>
			<td>Fallypride precursor, &#62;90%</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Trimethylamine (TEA)</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>75-50-3</td>
			<td>&#8805; 99%</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tweezers</td>
			<td>Cole-Parmer</td>
			<td>UX-07387-08</td>
			<td>Stainless steel, fine tip</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

optimization of radiochemical reactions using droplet arrays

Current automated radiosynthesizers are designed to produce large clinical batches of radiopharmaceuticals. They are not well suited for reaction optimization or novel radiopharmaceutical development since each data point involves significant reagent consumption, and contamination of the apparatus requires time for radioactive decay before the next use. To address these limitations, a platform for performing arrays of miniature droplet-based reactions in parallel, each confined within a surface-tension trap on a patterned polytetrafluoroethylene-coated silicon "chip", was developed. These chips enable rapid and convenient studies of reaction parameters including reagent concentrations, reaction solvent, reaction temperature and time. This platform permits the completion of hundreds of reactions in a few days with minimal reagent consumption, instead of taking months using a conventional radiosynthesizer.

A representative experiment was performed to illustrate this method. Using 16 reactions, optimization studies of the radiopharmaceutical [18F]fallypride were performed by varying precursor concentration (77, 39, 19, 9.6, 4.8, 2.4, 1.2, and 0.6 mM) in thexyl alcohol:MeCN (1:1, v/v) as the reaction solvent. Reactions were performed at 110 &#176;C for 7 min. Collection efficiency, sample composition (i.e., proportions of [18F]fallypride product, unreacted [18...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Optimization of Radiochemical Reactions using Droplet Arrays at JoVE.com

Optimization of Radiochemical Reactions using Droplet Arrays

This method describes the use of a novel high-throughput methodology, based on droplet chemical reactions, for the rapid and economical optimization of radiopharmaceuticals using nanomole amounts of reagents.

Current automated radiosynthesizers are designed to produce large clinical batches of radiopharmaceuticals. They are not well suited for reaction ...

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