Laura L. Boles Ponto, Susan Walsh, Jiangeng Huang, Christine Mundt, Katherine Thede-Reynolds, G. Leonard Watkins, John Sunderland, Michael Acevedo, Maureen Donovan

To illustrate the use of imaging to quantify the transfer of materials from the nasal cavity to other anatomical compartments, specifically, transfer to the brain using the thymidine analogue, [18F]fluorothymidine (FLT), and the glucose analogue, [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG). Anesthetized rats were administered FLT or FDG by intranasal instillation (IN) or tail-vein injection (IV). PET/CT imaging was performed for up to 60 min. Volumes-of-interest (VOIs) for the olfactory bulb (OB) and the remaining brain were created on the CT and transferred to the co-registered dynamic PET. Time-activity curves (TACs) were generated and compared. The disposition patterns were successfully visualized and quantified and differences in brain distribution patterns were observed. For FDG, the concentration was substantially higher in the OB than the brain only after IN administration. For FLT, the concentration was higher in the OB than the brain after both IN and IV and higher after IN than after IV administration at all times, whereas the concentration in the brain was higher after IN than after IV administration at early times only. Approximately 50 and 9% of the IN FDG and FLT doses, respectively, remained in the nasal cavity at 20 min post-administration. The initial phase of clearance was similar for both agents (t1/2 = 2.53 and 3.36 min) but the slow clearance phase was more rapid for FLT than FDG (t1/2 = 32.1 and 85.2 min, respectively). Pharmacoimaging techniques employing PET/CT can be successfully implemented to quantitatively investigate and compare the disposition of radiolabeled agents administered by a variety of routes.