RPS Community of Practice lecture series: Preparation and Quality Control of [18F]Fluorodopa

Preparation and Quality Control of [18F]Fluorodopa: Ms Zena Rainbird, 26 August 2025

Dear Colleagues

It gives me great pleasure to announce the seventh presentation for 2025, a presentation by Ms Zena Rainbird from Q-TRaCE, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Brisbane:

The large cohort of Radiopharmaceuticals that radiochemists prepare world-wide include numerous chiral molecules. Amongst these, are the natural L-amino acids which have been radiolabelled with C-11, Fluorine-18 and I-123 such as [11C]Methionine, [18F]-Floroethyltyrosine, [123I]Iodomethyltyrosine and of course [18F]Fluorodopa ([18F]-FDOPA). However, many of these molecules are prone to enantiomeric isomerisation resulting in loss of chirality and forming a mixture of L and D-enantiomers. Zena will present her work on the preparation and quality control of [18F]-FDOPA and in particular focusing on the enantiomeric stability at elevated temperatures. From the investigation thus far, it was determined that [18F]-L-FDOPA is temperature sensitive, resulting in increased formation of the impurity [18F]-D-FDOPA at higher temperatures. The formation of [18F]-D-FDOPA isomer is considered low risk to patient safety, however, its presence could impact the diagnostic quality of this radiopharmaceutical. Investigations on the thermal stability of [18F]FDOPA, have been conducted including transport validity. Our site additionally plans to investigate chiral stability of [18F]FDOPA at higher [18F] activity inputs.next 2-3 months highlighting the most recent radiochemistry developments in the field that were  presented at this meeting.

I hope you find these talks exciting, informative and educational. The presentation will be available through TEAMS.

Yours Sincerely
Andrew Katsifis

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