Biocatalysis in radiochemistry: Enzymatic incorporation of PET radionuclides into molecules of biomedical interest

Abstract

Biocatalysis is emerging as a new approach to radiolabel biologically active molecules with short half-lived positron emitters for their use in positron emission tomography. Despite the golden era of biocatalysis in radiochemistry occurred in the 70s and 80s, advances in enzyme engineering during the last decade have significantly enhanced the toolbox of enzymes available for chemical reactions, which may find application in the context of radiochemistry. In the present review, we intend to give an overview of the biocatalytic approaches that have been reported during the last 4 decades for the synthesis of PET radiotracers using nitrogen-13, carbon-11, and fluorine-18.

Keywords: PET radionuclides; biocatalysis; enzymes; labelling; radiochemistry.