Safety, pharmacokinetics, metabolism and radiation dosimetry of 18F-tetrafluoroborate (18F-TFB) in healthy human subjects

Background: F-18-Tetrafluoroborate (F-18-TFB) is a promising iodide analog for PET imaging of thyroid cancer and sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) reporter activity in viral therapy applications. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics, biodistribution, and radiation dosimetry of high-specific activity F-18-TFB in healthy human subjects. Methods: F-18-TFB was synthesized with specific activity of 3.2 +/- 1.3 GBq/mu mol (at the end of synthesis). Dynamic and whole-body static PET/CT scans over 4 h were performed after intravenous administration of F-18-TFB (333-407 MBq) in four female and four male healthy volunteers (35 +/- 11 years old). Samples of venous blood and urine were collected over the imaging period and analyzed by ion-chromatography HPLC to determine tracer stability. Vital signs and clinical laboratory safety assays were measured to evaluate safety. Results: F-18-TFB administration was well tolerated with no significant findings on vital signs and no clinically meaningful changes in clinical laboratory assays. Left-ventricular blood pool time-activity curves showed a multiphasic blood clearance of F-18-radioactivity with the two rapid clearance phases over the first 20 min, followed by a slower clearance phase. HPLC analysis showed insignificant F-18-labeled metabolites in the blood and urine over the length of the study (4 h). High uptakes were seen in the thyroid, stomach, salivary glands, and bladder. Urinary clearance of F-18-TFB was prominent. Metabolic stability was evidenced by low accumulation of F-18-radioactivity in the bone. Effective doses were 0.036 mSv/MBq in males and 0.064 mSv/MBq in females (p = 0.08, not significant). Conclusions: This initial study in healthy human subjects showed F-18-TFB was safe and distributed in the human body similar to other iodide analogs. These data support further translational studies with F-18-TFB as NIS gene reporter and imaging biomarker for thyroid cancer and other disease processes that import iodide.