Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel 99mTc labeled ornidazole xanthate complexes as potential hypoxia imaging agents

Abstract

In this study, ornidazole xanthate (ONXT) ligand was successfully synthesized and its 99mTc-nitrido core, 99mTc-oxo core and [99mTc(CO)3]+ core complexes were prepared with high yields. The tumor cell experiments and the biodistribution in mice bearing S180 tumor showed that all of the complexes had a certain hypoxic selectivity and tumor uptake. Among them, 99mTcO-ONXT exhibited the highest tumor uptake and tumor/muscle ratio. Planar scintigraphic imaging studies showed the tumor detection was observable, suggesting it would be a potential radiotracer to target tumor hypoxia.