Evaluation of thiadiazine-based PET radioligands for imaging the AMPA receptor

As a subclass of ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs), α-amino-3-hydroxyl-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors have been implicated in various neurological disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. To further our understanding of AMPA receptor-related disorders in the central nervous system (CNS), it is important to be able to image and quantify AMPA receptors in vivo. In this study, we identified a novel F-containing AMPA positive allosteric modulator (PAM) 6 as a potential lead compound. Molecular docking studies and CNS PET multi-parameter optimization (MPO) analysis were used to predict the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) characteristics of 6 as a PET probe. The resulting PET probe, [¹⁸F]6 (codename [¹⁸F]AMPA-2109), was successfully radiolabeled and demonstrated excellent blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability and high brain uptake in rodents and non-human primates. However, [¹⁸F]6 did not show substantial specific binding in the rodent or non-human primate brain. Further medicinal chemistry efforts are necessary to improve specific binding, and our work may serve as a starting point for the design of novel ¹⁸F-labeled AMPA receptor-targeted PET radioligands aimed for clinical translation.