Use of “on line [11C]methylation” in the synthesis of l-[O-11C-methyl]tyrosine, a promising radiotracer for positron emission tomography

A labeled tyrosine analog, viz., l-[O-11C-methyl]tyrosine ([11C]MT), was obtained by a reaction of [11C]-methyl iodide with a tyrosine salt in DMSO in the presence of tetrabutylammonium hydroxide on the Sep-Pak tC18 cartridge surface. The efficiency of the “on line O-[11C]methylation” was 55%.