Niki M. Zacharias1, 2, Napapon Sailasuta1, Henry R. Chan1, Maja C. Cassidy3, Cameron Henneberg1, Ashraf Imam1, Brian D. Ross1, Pratip Bhattacharya1
1Enhanced MR Laboratory, Huntington Medical Research Institutes, Pasadena, CA, United States; 2Division of Chemistry, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States; 3Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States
Parahydrogen Induced Polarization (PHIP) can offer 50,000 fold increase in MR signal under the right conditions. Diethyl 1-13C 2,3-d2 succinate is generated through the hydrogenation of diethyl 1-13C 2,3-d2 fumarate and hyperpolarization increases the 13C signal by 5000 fold. We have previously employed hyperpolarized diethyl succinate to image and observe real time metabolism in normal mice. In the work described here, we have applied hyperpolarized diethyl succinate for imaging cancer in two different subcutaneous tumor models in mice and compared their fingerprinting of the downstream metabolites in the TCA cycle in real time in vivo, thereby providing an exciting application of metabolic imaging employing hyperpolarization.