A modified method for no carrier added radioiodination of L-tyrosine via chloramine-T as an oxidizing agent

A modified method for the preparation of L-[^131/123I] iodotyrosine as a brain imaging agent is described. The method is based on direct electrophilic radioiodination of L-tyrosine with NaI [^131/123I] using chloramine-T (CAT) and 0.001 g KI as a carrier at pH 7.0. The product was purified by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). A high radiochemical yield up to 85% of L-[^131/123I] iodotyrosine has been achieved with radiochemical purity of greater than 97%. The relation between the pKa of L-tyrosine and pH of the reaction medium was calculated in order to correlate the radiochemical yield of L-[^131/123I] iodotyrosine and the state of the three ionizable groups of L-tyrosine. Also, the influence of the reaction conditions on the radiochemical yield of L-[^131/123I] iodotyrosine was investigated.