Enantiomeric purity deviations of radiolabelled amino acids obtained from chiral columns

Enantiomeric purity (EP) is an important value which denotes the relative percentage of the L-isomer with respect to the D-isomer. For 11C and 18F-labelled amino acid (AA) radiopharmaceutical (RP) production, EP represents a quality control parameter specified in European and national monographs for particular RPs. In most instances, EP value of greater then 90 or 95% (depending on AA type) is required as part of the quality control (QC) value of a RP following radiosynthesis. In common practice, two chromatographic columns are used for the EP determination of RPs: Crownpak CR(+) (Daicel), which contains a crown ether stationary phase or Chirobiotic T (Astec), which contains silica-bound glycoproteins as the stationary phase. The application of column Crownpak CR(+) requires that only perchloric acid solution (with pH 1–2) may be used, as the retention capability of the stationary phase is greatly reduced using organic solvents. This work intends to identify which chromatographic system is more accurate and reliable for EP determination as part of QC. We performed a series of parallel injections of the same batch of the widely used AA RPs [11C]MET and [18F]FET on the two aforementioned columns. The EP determination using column Crownpak CR(+) consistently provided a lower EP value compared to the Chirobiotic T column; the EP deviation between the respective columns was found to range from 2.4–4.0% for the same RP sample. Furthermore, the EP value was influenced by a sample’s dilution factor, e.g. the EP was observed to increase up to 1.5% when the radioactive sample had a fivefold dilution factor. This phenomenon was consistent for both Crownpak CR(+) and Chirobiotic T columns. Finally, a series of standard solutions of non-radioactive methionine with various ratios of L-and D-isomers was analyzed. The data obtained for non-radioactive methionine confirmed that column Crownpak CR(+) incorrectly provided a higher D-enantiomer concentration, whereas Chirobiotic T was found to provide a lower D-enantiomer concentration of the same sample. The deviation from the theoretical EP value was between 0.67 and 1.92%.

Radioanalytics – An Indispensable Tool for Radiological and Nuclear Safety

The exact knowledge on the inventory of a radioactive sample is a precondition to act appropriately in terms of nuclear safety. Radioanalytical methods aimed to determine the radionuclide content of activated material play therefore a central role regarding safe operation of nuclear installations, protection of personnel, inhabitants and environment as well as for the design and construction of new facilities. The article gives an overview on the broad variety of analysis and measurement methods, describes necessary chemical separation procedures and explains the impact for nuclear safety assessment in the field of radioanalytics at the Paul Scherrer Institut Villigen, Switzerland. It addresses both the safe routine operation of nuclear installations, which can be a challenge to our radiometric capabilities and refers to selected radioanalytical research projects.

Testing Lorentz symmetry violation with an invariant minimum speed

This work presents an experimental test of Lorentz invariance violation in the infrared (IR) regime by means of an invariant minimum speed in spacetime and its effects on the time when an atomic clock given by a certain radioactive single-atom (e.g. isotope Na[Formula: see text]) is a thermometer for an ultracold gas like the dipolar gas Na[Formula: see text]K[Formula: see text]. So, according to a Deformed Special Relativity (DSR) so-called Symmetrical Special Relativity (SSR), where there emerges an invariant minimum speed V in the subatomic world, one expects that the proper time of such a clock moving close to V in thermal equilibrium with the ultracold gas is dilated with respect to the improper time given in lab, i.e. the proper time at ultracold systems elapses faster than the improper one for an observer in the lab, thus leading to the so-called proper time dilation so that the atomic decay rate of an ultracold radioactive sample (e.g. Na[Formula: see text]) becomes larger than the decay rate of the same sample at room temperature. This means a suppression of the half-life time of a radioactive sample thermalized with an ultracold cloud of dipolar gas to be investigated by NASA in the Cold Atom Lab (CAL).

Radioactive Sample Preparation using Focused Ion Beam

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, August 4 – August 8, 2013.