18F- and 11C-labelling of quantum dots with n.c.a. [18F]fluoroethyltosylate and [11C]methyliodide: a feasibility study

Quantum dots functionalized on the outer surface with either amino- or carboxyl functions were labelled with [¹⁸F]fluoroethyltosylate and [¹¹C]methyliodide in order to use the positron emitter-labelled fluorescence agents for multimodality imaging techniques, i.e. fluorescence imaging and positron emission tomography. ¹⁸F-Labelling of both compounds was realized with yields up to 5% as determined by size exclusion chromatography, which is twice as much as reported in literature before [1]. ¹¹C-Labelling of amino- and carboxyl-QDs proceeded with good yields (up to 45 and 35%, respectively) under optimized reaction conditions. In general for both QD-types and both labelling agents the labelling yield increased with the amount of QDs used in the reaction as well as with reaction time and reaction temperature.