AUTHOR=Wang Yunze , Lin Qingyu , Shi Hongcheng , Cheng Dengfeng 

TITLE=Fluorine-18: Radiochemistry and Target-Specific PET Molecular Probes Design

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemistry

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2022.884517

DOI=10.3389/fchem.2022.884517

ISSN=2296-2646

ABSTRACT=<p>The positron emission tomography (PET) molecular imaging technology has gained universal value as a critical tool for assessing biological and biochemical processes in living subjects. The favorable chemical, physical, and nuclear characteristics of fluorine-18 (97% β<sup>+</sup> decay, 109.8 min half-life, 635 keV positron energy) make it an attractive nuclide for labeling and molecular imaging. It stands that 2-[<sup>18</sup>F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose ([<sup>18</sup>F]FDG) is the most popular PET tracer. Besides that, a significantly abundant proportion of PET probes in clinical use or under development contain a fluorine or fluoroalkyl substituent group. For the reasons given above, <sup>18</sup>F-labeled radiotracer design has become a hot topic in radiochemistry and radiopharmaceutics. Over the past decades, we have witnessed a rapid growth in <sup>18</sup>F-labeling methods owing to the development of new reagents and catalysts. This review aims to provide an overview of strategies in radiosynthesis of [<sup>18</sup>F]fluorine-containing moieties with nucleophilic [<sup>18</sup>F]fluorides since 2015.</p>