Andrew Bresnen1,
Fang Du1, Geoffrey Clarke2, Timothy O. Duong3
1Research
Imaging Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio,
San Antonio, TX, United States; 2Radiological Sciences, University
of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United
States; 3UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX,
United States
Methylene blue (MB) has unique energy-enhancing and antioxidant properties. MB shows remarkable therapeutic effects in a number of neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and traumatic and ischemic brain injury. In vitro studies have demonstrated that MB enhances mitochondrial ATP production via oxidative phoysphorylation, however the effects of MB on in vivo metabolites and metabolic rates remain unknown. In this study, we implemented 31P NMR based on the Four Angle Saturation Transfer method for rapid in vivo measurements of the effects of MB on relative concentrations of ATP, phosphocreatine and inorganic phosphorus and the forward creatine kinase (CK) rate.