Astrogliosis occurs by abnormal CNS pathological conditions. Especially in various
neurodegenerative conditions, astrogliosis appears frequently. A recent study found that
these reactive astrocytes generate GABA through upregulated MAO-B enzyme, causi...
Astrogliosis occurs by abnormal CNS pathological conditions. Especially in various
neurodegenerative conditions, astrogliosis appears frequently. A recent study found that
these reactive astrocytes generate GABA through upregulated MAO-B enzyme, causing
memory impairment in Alzheimer’s disease. As a follow-up study of these previous
discoveries, our group have synthesized selective, reversible and novel MAO-B inhibitor,
KDS2010. MAO-B, not only as a therapeutic target of neurodegenerative diseases, but also
could be a promising target for diagnosis of reactive astrocytes. It was found that MAO-B is
overexpressed in the brain of patients with neurodegenerative disease, and accordingly, there
has been development of PET tracers targeting MAO-B. But, previously developed tracers
are not reversible or having short half-life of [11C]. So I tried to synthesize novel fluorinated
MAO-B PET probe candidate based on KDS2010 structure and developed compound 6a. 6a
has exhibited potent inhibition effect on MAO-B (IC50 = 7 nM) with favorable microsomal
stability data and CYP inhibition safety. PK study also showed probability of PET tracer.
Finally, in order to increase the possibility of clinical application as a PET trace, one-pot
synthesis procedure and HPLC purification method were optimized.