Ultra Compact Polarizer Probe for Imaging Metabolism

描述(由申请人提供)：超极化磁共振(HP-MR)是一种独特的适用于快速评估活体组织中特定途径代谢流量的技术。细胞生物化学中复杂的瞬时和慢性适应形成了生物体持续能量平衡的基础，因此，测量这些代谢途径的扰动的能力具有诊断广泛潜在的病理和定量评估治疗反应的潜力。HP-MR的潜力和安全性已经通过临床前研究得到了充分的证实，这项技术已经在人体临床试验中得到了应用。不幸的是，当前仪器的费用、体积和复杂性使大多数临床医生和生物医学研究人员无法使用这项技术。这项提议旨在弥合潜在的公共健康影响与基础技术对临床医生和生物医学研究人员的可及性之间的关键差距。为了实现这一目标，将开发一种超小型、廉价的超极化仪器，该仪器将与所有现有的(大口径)人体和临床前磁共振成像控制台兼容使用。在目标1中，我们将开发一种用于仲氢超极化的非磁性遥控化学反应模块。在目标2中，我们将开发紧凑的电子控制器，用于同步化学反应、自旋转换和反应后过滤。与现有仪器的兼容性是这项提案的首要目标，以确保临床医生和生物医学研究人员广泛使用HP-MR技术。此外，这里追求的基于仲氢的技术的效率是根据代谢造影剂自旋系统的对称性量身定做的，随着自旋系统变得更加对称，预计更高的场将以不同的方式表现得更好。因此，在目标3中，我们利用范德比尔特成像科学研究所提供的各种MR平台，通过将建议的偏振器仪器与成像超极化造影剂生产对接，在多种场强和配置的各种临床和临床前研究扫描仪上验证仪器的兼容性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hyperpolarized magnetic resonance (HP-MR) is emerging as a technology uniquely suited for rapidly assessing pathway-specific metabolic flux in living tissue. Complex transient and chronic adaptations in cellular biochemistry form the basis of sustained energetic balance in organisms, and therefore the ability to measure perturbations of these metabolic pathways has the potential to diagnose broadly underlying pathology and quantitatively assess the response to therapy. The potential and safety of HP-MR has been sufficiently well established through preclinical studies that the technology is featured in a human clinical trial. Unfortunately, the expense, bulk, and complexity of current instruments preclude access of this technology to the majority of clinicians and biomedical researchers. This proposal aims to bridge the critical gap between potential public health impact and access of the underlying technology to the clinicians and biomedical researchers. To accomplish this, an ultra-compact and inexpensive hyperpolarization instrument will be developed that would be compatible for use with all existing (wide bore) human and preclinical MR imaging consoles. In Aim 1, we will develop a nonmagnetic, remotely controlled chemical reactor module for parahydrogen based hyperpolarization. In Aim 2, we will develop compact electronic controllers for synchronizing chemical reaction, spin transformations, and post reaction filtering. Compatibility with existing instruments is paramount to a primary objective of this proposal to ensure wide access of the HP-MR technology to clinicians and biomedical researchers. Moreover, the efficiency of the parahydrogen based technology being pursued here is tailored to the symmetry properties of the metabolic contrast agent spin systems, with higher fields expected to differentially outperform as the spin system becomes more symmetric. In Aim 3, we therefore utilize the diverse MR platforms available from the Vanderbilt Institute of Imaging Science to validate the compatibility of the instrument by interfacing the proposed polarizer instrument and imaging hyperpolarized contrast agent production, on a variety of clinical and preclinical research scanners at several field strengths and configurations.