18F-Fluorocholine

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Meilleur Technologies, Inc. today announced a research collaboration agreement with the Young Blood Institute (YBI) on the use of Meilleur’s [F-18]NAV-4694, an investigational imaging agent, in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans to assess the status of amyloid plaque in the brain. Amyloid plaques are a hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). The collaboration is focused on using [F-18]NAV-4694 as an imaging biomarker in the YBI AmβARI (Amyloid βeta Assessment & Removal Intervention) study. The Young Blood Institute will utilize Meilleur’s [F-18]NAV-4694 tracer to aid YBI’s study of early detection and clearance of Amyloid βeta to prevent Alzheimer’s disease using Therapeutic Plasma Exchange. Colin Masters, MD, Professor of Dementia Research at the Florey Institute and the University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, will lead the study as YBI Principal Investigator. According to Dr. Masters, “There are multiple tracers for PET scanning available at the moment, and I insisted that we get the scientifically preferred tracer for this clinical study so that the trials we’re planning will provide the strongest clinical evidence of how significantly plasma exchange shifts the PET signal. ref” Mark Urdahl, President & CEO of the Young Blood Institute, added, “While we plan to use the latest mass spec Aβ blood tests to screen subjects for potential Amyloid βeta accumulations in the brain, PET scanning remains the primary modality for confirmation of diagnosis. And NAV4694 provides the highest signal strength of any of the F-18 tracers ref.” “Meilleur is focused on enabling acceleration of technologies that have the potential to advance the fight against debilitating neurodegenerative diseases,” said Rick Hiatt, Chief Exécutive Officier, Meilleur Technologies, Inc. “We believe NAV4694 has unique properties that will prove useful in developing current and future therapeutic agents in neurodegenerative disease and are excited to add YBI to our growing network of pharmaceutical and academic partners, leveraging our globally validated production sites. Our goal is to expand the availability of this novel investigational imaging agent to the broader scientific community.” Ref. : Pascoal et al. 2020. PiB: Klunk et al., Alzheimer Dement, 2015. NAV: Rowe et al., J Nucl Med, 2016. FBB: Rowe et al., EJNMMI, 2017. FBP: Navitsky et al., Alzheimer Dement, 2018. FLT: Battle et al., EJNMMI Research, 2018. About Meilleur Technologies, Inc. Meilleur’s vision is to be the premier provider of imaging biomarkers for neurological pathologies, associated information technology and related tools to accelerate the development, approval, and adoption of effective therapies to treat neurodegenerative diseases. Meilleur’s late-stage biomarker, NAV-4694, provides Pharma and Academic researchers with a ‘best in class’ second generation ß-Amyloid imaging biomarker capable of detecting and validating Disease Modifying Therapies with the highest possible precision and accuracy for determining the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. About the Young Blood Institute The Young Blood Institute was established as a non-profit clinical research organization to study new uses for Therapeutic Plasma Exchange therapies that have been used for decades to address autoimmune disorders. YBI’s study focus on age-associated disorders, as well as early pre-clinical findings and unique protocol developments for cognitively normal subjects, have led to an expansion into secondary prevention studies and strategies around dementia and dementia of the Alzheimer’s type, in particular. View source version on businesswire.com: Contacts Meilleur Technologies, Inc. Rick Hiatt, 617-906-2715 Young Blood Institute Mark Urdahl, 844-924-4648 Source: Meilleur Technologies, Inc. View this news release online at:

Researchers synthesize fluorine-based compound via rapid biphasic (gas and liquid) mixing. How short is one second? The duration of a second can be defined as one 86,400th of a 24-hour day. A bullet train traveling at 300 km per hour can cover a distance of 83 meters in one second. On average, an individual's blink lasts for 0.3 seconds, allowing for three blinks to occur within one second. A joint team of researchers from POSTECH has proposed a synthesis method for fluorine-based compound via a rapid mixing reaction between a gaseous component and liquid that takes less than a single second. The research team led by Professor Dong-Pyo Kim and Jeong-Un Joo (Department of Chemical Engineering at POSTECH), and Professor Heejin Kim and Hyune-Jea Lee (currently, a researcher at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology) from the Department of Chemistry at Korea University has successfully developed a new method for synthesizing trifluoromethyl intermediate (-CF3) from fluoroform (CHF3). It involves the use of a special reactor capable of achieving an ultra-fast mixing between gas and liquid. This method offers promising prospects for the synthesis of novel fluorine-based new drugs. The research was published in Nature Communications. Fluorine is not found in its pure form naturally, but instead exists solely in the form of various chemical compounds. Sodium fluoride, a compound containing fluorine, is used as an ingredient in toothpaste due to its ability to coat teeth and prevent cavities. Recent studies have highlighted the potential of synthetic drug molecules containing fluorine as they possess high permeability into cell membranes of diseased tissues and exhibit strong binding affinity against proteins. Consequently, there is growing interest in the development of drugs containing fluorine. There are several approaches to synthesizing trifluoromethyl, but the most cost-effective method involves substituting a hydrogen atom from fluoroform, a simple precursor, with another element or functional group. However, gaseous fluoroform is volatile, which makes it difficult to mix with liquids and exhibits low reactivity. Moreover, it decomposes instantly, requiring the addition of a substance that can react with it. Unfortunately, this process can result in unintended chemical reactions that lead to a low yield of trifluoromethyl. To address the challenge of synthesizing trifluoromethyl from fluoroform, the research team developed a novel gas-liquid reactor with a zigzag-shaped channel and highly permeable non-porous membranes sandwiched between upper and lower channels. This configuration allowed for the swirling and mixing of superbase, a liquid utilized for dehydrogenation, and gaseous fluoroform within the reactor. By breaking fluoroform bubbles into smaller pieces to increase the contact area between gas and liquid, the team was able to effectively produce trifluoromethyl anion (CF3-). Unlike traditional approaches, they produced a fluoride intermediate effectively without requiring stabilizers or additives. The research team synthesized a fluorine-based compound by immediately adding a compound that will react with the fluoride anion intermediate. The entire process, which involved the generation of a fluorine anion intermediate from fluoroform took place within a second. The team maximized the formation of a trifluoromethyl anion, which is known to be short-lived, and rapidly facilitated the subsequent reaction before the intermediate decomposed. This method allowed for improved yield of fluoride-based compounds and introduced a robust technique for the synthesis of fluorine-based drugs. The research findings have significant implications for industrial applications in the economically efficient synthesis of fluoride compounds, making them more practical as well contributing significantly to studies on several unstable intermediates. The study was conducted with the support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.