Rong Zhou1, Puneet Bagga1, Kavindra Nath1, David Mankoff1, Hari Hariharan1, and Ravinder Reddy1
We presented the very first evaluation of glutamate chemical exchange
saturation transfer (GluCEST) MRI to detect pharmacodynamic effect of small
molecule drugs that target cancer glutaminolysis pathway. Conversion of
glutamine to glutamate is a rate limiting step along this pathway. Inhibition
of this conversion leads to reduction of cellular glutamate concentration that
can be detected by GluCEST in vivo and confirmed by ex vivo high resolution 1H
MRS of tumor homogenates.
