[¹⁸F]FPIA PET

[¹⁸F]Fluoro-pivalic acid ([¹⁸F]FPIA) is based on a non-natural short-chain fatty acid pivalate (trimethylacetate). Pivalate cannot be oxidized to CO₂ in mammalian cells, but pivalate can be activated to a coenzyme A thioester in cells, and in humans, formation and urinary excretion of pivaloylcarnitine generated from pivaloyl-CoA is the major route of pivalate elimination (Brass, 2002).

[¹⁸F]FPIA has high tumour uptake, slow metabolism, and it does not defluorinate like [¹⁸F]fluoroacetate (Pisanechi et al., 2013). It could be useful in detecting and monitoring brain tumours (Witney et al., 2014; Vassileva et al., 2021; Islam et al., 2023 and 2025).

See also:

• Short-chain fatty acids
• Acetate
• [¹¹C]Acetate
• [¹⁸F]Fluoroacetate
• 2-[¹⁸F]fluoropropionate

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Literature

Brass EP. Pivalate-generating prodrugs and carnitine homeostasis in man. Pharmacol Rev. 2002; 54(4): 589-598. doi: 10.1124/pr.54.4.589.

Pisaneschi F, Witney TH, Iddon L, Aboagye EO. Synthesis of [¹⁸F]fluoro-pivalic acid: An improved PET imaging probe for the fatty acid synthesis pathway in tumours. MedChemComm. 2013; 4(10): 1350-1353. doi: 10.1039/c3md00169e.

Vassileva V, Braga M, Barnes C, Przystal J, Ashek A, Allott L, Brickute D, Abrahams J, Suwan K, Carcaboso AM, Hajitou A, Aboagye EO. Effective detection and monitoring of glioma Using [¹⁸F]FPIA PET imaging. Biomedicines 2021; 9(7): 811. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines9070811.

Tags: SCFAs, Fatty acids

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Updated at: 2025-06-04
Created at: 2025-06-02
Written by: Vesa Oikonen