Develop Clinical Molecular and pH Imaging for Stroke Diagnosis at 3T Human Scanner

Our hypothesis is that the CEST MRI reveals key molecular events and acidosis in stroke and is sensitive to related molecular changes that are of great importance for diagnosis and treatment monitoring. We demonstrated for the first time that CEST MRI could detected changes in protein and cellularity in intracerebral hemorrhage mouse model in a sensitive manner (2), the altered glucose uptake and utilization during glucose deprivation treatment in brain tumors (3), and many other neuropathology, such as those related to myelin and CSF clearance (4-6). CEST contrast includes the glucose (4), amine (7), amide proton transfer (APT) (8) and nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) (2,5-7) could be applied to study stroke related neuropathology. In addition to our recent findings, Sun et al. has demonstrated APT can be applied for pH imaging in acute stroke, while Tietze et al. has shown that APT can be applied to detect acidosis in ischemic penumbra (9,10). Collectively, our pilot CEST studies and the pH-sensitivity of APT strongly suggest that CEST could detect hallmarks in stroke and is sensitive enough to detect therapeutic effects non-invasively and longitudinally. This study will provide a noninvasive approach without the need to use exogenous contrast agents to personalize treatments and potentially minimize the readmission of stroke patients. This platform is expected to provide new avenues for imaging the molecular events in stroke. This could facilitate the precise diagnosis and treatment monitoring.