First Human Use of a Radiopharmaceutical Prepared by Continuous-Flow Microfluidic Chemistry: Proof of Concept with the Tau Imaging Agent

Despite extensive preclinical imaging with radiotracers developed by continuous-flow microfluidics, a positron emission tomographic (PET) radiopharmaceutical has not been reported for human imaging studies by this technology. The goal of this study was to validate the synthesis of the tau radiopharmaceutical 7-(6-fluoropyridin-3-yl)-5H-pyrido[4,3-b]indole ([18F]T807) and perform first-in-human PET scanning enabled by microfluidic flow chemistry. A clinical research study was carried out with [18F]T807, representing the first reported human imaging study with a radiopharmaceutical prepared by this technology.