Jeremy W Gordon1, Hecong Qin1, Renuka Sriram1, Robert Bok1, Peder EZ Larson1, Daniel B Vigneron1, and John Kurhanewicz1
Dissolution
DNP provides a 10,000-fold signal enhancement to carbon-13 nuclei and enables
real-time metabolic imaging. In addition to the Warburg Effect, many malignant
cancers overexpress MCT4, the monocarboxylate transporter responsible for
lactate efflux and extracellular acidification. Because of microenvironmental differences,
diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) with hyperpolarized substrates may provide
unique information on lactate efflux and MCT4 expression. Here we show that DWI
with hyperpolarized substrates is sensitive to changes in MCT4 expression, as
lactate ADC is increased by >40% in late-stage TRAMP tumors. This technique
may potentially provide a novel way to assess metabolite compartmentalization
and transporter expression in malignant disease.