Imaging Extracellular Lactate In Vitro and In Vivo Using CEST MRI and a Paramagnetic Shift Reagent.

Overproduction of lactate is a hallmark of cancer, yet a method to quantitatively measure lactate production by cancer cells is not straight-forward. Chemical exchange saturation transfer magnetic resonance imaging (CEST MRI) can potentially be used to image lactate but the small difference in chemical shift of the lactate -OH proton and water proton resonances make it challenging. Like other spectroscopic methods, CEST MRI cannot discriminate intracellular lactate from extracellular lactate. Herein, we demonstrate a relatively simple way to shift the lactate -OH proton resonance far away from water by addition of the paramagnetic shift reagent, EuDO3A, while retaining the CEST properties of lactate itself. The potential of the method was demonstrated by imaging extracellular lactate excreted from lung cancer cells in tissue culture without interference from other components in the culture media and by imaging excess lactate excreted into the bladder of a mouse.

Zinc-sensitive MRI contrast agent detects differential release of Zn(II) ions from the healthy vs. malignant mouse prostate.

Many secretory tissues release Zn(II) ions along with other molecules in response to external stimuli. Here we demonstrate that secretion of Zn(II) ions from normal, healthy prostate tissue is stimulated by glucose in fasted mice and that release of Zn(II) can be monitored by MRI. An ∼50% increase in water proton signal enhancement is observed in T1-weighted images of the healthy mouse prostate after infusion of a Gd-based Zn(II) sensor and an i.p. bolus of glucose. Release of Zn(II) from intracellular stores was validated in human epithelial prostate cells in vitro and in surgically exposed prostate tissue in vivo using a Zn(II)-sensitive fluorescent probe known to bind to the extracellular surface of cells. Given the known differences in intracellular Zn(II) stores in healthy versus malignant prostate tissues, the Zn(II) sensor was then evaluated in a transgenic adenocarcinoma of the mouse prostate (TRAMP) model in vivo. The agent proved successful in detecting small malignant lesions as early as 11 wk of age, making this noninvasive MR imaging method potentially useful for identifying prostate cancer in situations where it may be difficult to detect using current multiparametric MRI protocols.

Disruptive chemical doping in a ferritin-based iron oxide nanoparticle to decrease r2 and enhance detection with T1-weighted MRI.

Inorganic doping was used to create flexible, paramagnetic nanoparticle contrast agents for in vivo molecular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with low transverse relaxivity (r2). Most nanoparticle contrast agents formed from superparamagnetic metal oxides are developed with high r2. While sensitive, they can have limited in vivo detection due to a number of constraints with T2 or T2*-weighted imaging. T1-weighted imaging is often preferred for molecular MRI, but most T1-shortening agents are small chelates with low metal payload or are nanoparticles that also shorten T2 and limit the range of concentrations detectable with T1-weighting. Here we used tungsten and iron deposition to form doped iron oxide crystals inside the apoferritin cavity to form a WFe nanoparticle with a disordered crystal and un-coupled atomic magnetic moments. The atomic magnetic moments were thus localized, resulting in a principally paramagnetic nanoparticle. The WFe nanoparticles had no coercivity or saturation magnetization at 5 K and sweeping up to ± 20,000 Oe, while native ferritin had a coercivity of 3000 Oe and saturation at ± 20,000 Oe. This tungsten-iron crystal paramagnetism resulted in an increased WFe particle longitudinal relaxivity (r1) of 4870 mm(-1) s(-1) and a reduced transverse relaxivity (r2) of 9076 mm(-1) s(-1) compared with native ferritin. The accumulation of the particles was detected with T1-weighted MRI in concentrations from 20 to 400 nm in vivo, both injected in the rat brain and targeted to the rat kidney glomerulus. The WFe apoferritin nanoparticles were not cytotoxic up to 700 nm particle concentrations, making them potentially important for targeted molecular MRI.