DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS OF NEW PET RADIOTRACERS IN DRUG DISCOVERY

In this manuscript, the scientific work of the PhD of Dr Marco Maspero is described. This is focused on the development of PET radiotracers, for their application as imaging probes for the detection of diseases and as valuable tools in drug discovery. Two main approaches are applied: - A monomodal approach for the preparation of 18F and 11C radiolabeled small molecules targeting the fibrotic process; - A multimodal approach for the development of peptide-based dually labelled compounds suited for optical and PET (68Ga) imaging. The manuscript describes the synthetic approaches and the chemical characterizations of the novel compounds, as well as the results of their in vitro analysis. From this work, novel potential radiotracers for the fibrotic process have been identified, and it was also confirmed and expanded the described charge-cell binding correlation for peptide-based hybrid multimodal imaging agents. The project was developed at the University of Milan, Italy, under the supervision of Prof. Clelia Dallanoce, and in collaboration with the Nuclear Medicine Unit of the San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy, and the University of Heidelberg, Germany.