User:BillFowler/sandbox

Unlabeled FDG was first synthesized in 1969 by chemists at Charles University, Czechoslovakia, using a nucleophilic fluorination reaction with potassium bifluoride. It had also been synthesized by electrophilic fluorination with trifluoromethyl hypofluorite by chemists at the Royal Cancer Hospital, London in 1970 where it had been shown to be a good substrate for hexokinase, the rate limiting enzyme in glycolysis in 1972.

Because of the limited availability of F-18 labeled precursors, these two known syntheses were not suitable for the synthesis of 18F-FDG. The first synthesis of 18F-FDG used fluorine-18 labeled elemental fluorine (F2) produced via the 20Ne(d,α)18F reaction with the addition of a small amount of carrier F2 to the cyclotron target. ] This allowed for the electrophilic fluorination of 3,4,6-tri-O-acetylglucal and represented a new synthesis for both FDG and 18F-FDG.