Characterization of Lung Cancer by Amide Proton Transfer (APT) Imaging: In-Vivo Study in an Orthotopic Mouse Model

Masaya Takahashi¹, Osamu Togao¹, Chase W. Kessinger², Gang Huang², Ivan Dimitrov¹, A. Dean Sherry¹, Jinming Gao²

Amide proton transfer (APT) imaging is one of the chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) imaging methods which images the exchange between protons of free tissue water and the amide groups (-NH) of endogenous mobile proteins and peptides. Previous work suggested that the ability of APT imaging for characterization of the tumoral grade in the brain tumor. In this study, we tested the feasibility of APT imaging of lung cancer and investigated whether the method characterizes the tumoral types in an orthotopic mouse model.