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This study demonstrates the feasibility of imaging skeletal muscle metabolism using hyperpolarized carbon 13 pyruvate MRI and the sensitivity of in vivo pyruvate metabolism to exercise states.

Tissue pH is tightly regulated in vivo, being a sensitive physiological biomarker. Advent of dissolution dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) and its translation to humans stimulated development of pH-sensitive agents. However, requirements of DNP probes such as biocompatibility, signal sensitivity, and spin–lattice relaxation time (T1) complicate in vivo translation of the agents. Here, we developed a 13C-labeled alanine derivative, [1-13C]-l-alanine ethyl ester, as a viable DNP probe whose chemical shift is sensitive to the physiological pH range, and demonstrated the feasibility in phantoms and rat livers in vivo. Alanine ethyl ester readily crosses cell membrane while simultaneously assessing extracellular and intracellular pH in vivo. Following cell transport, [1-13C]-l-alanine ethyl ester is instantaneously hydrolyzed to [1-13C]-l-alanine, and subsequently metabolized to [1-13C]lactate and [13C]bicarbonate. The pH-insensitive alanine resonance was used as a reference.

Hyperpolarized 13C-labeled fumarate probes tissue necrosis via the production of 13C-malate. Despite its promises in detecting tumor necrosis and kidney injuries, its clinical translation has been limited, primarily due to the low solubility in conventional glassing solvents. In this study, we introduce a new formulation of fumarate for dissolution dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) by using meglumine as a counterion, a nonmetabolizable derivative of sorbitol. We have found that meglumine fumarate vitrifies by itself with enhanced water solubility (4.8 M), which is expected to overcome the solubility-restricted maximum concentration of hyperpolarized fumarate after dissolution. The achievable liquid-state polarization level of meglumine-fumarate is more than doubled (29.4 ± 1.3%) as compared to conventional dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)-mixed fumarate (13.5 ± 2.4%). In vivo comparison of DMSO- and meglumine-prepared 50-mM hyperpolarized [1,4-13C2]fumarate shows that the signal sensitivity in rat kidneys increases by 10-fold. As a result, [1,4-13C2]aspartate and [13C]bicarbonate in addition to [1,4-13C2]malate can be detected in healthy rat kidneys in vivo using hyperpolarized meglumine [1,4-13C2]fumarate. In particular, the appearance of [13C]bicarbonate indicates that hyperpolarized meglumine [1,4-13C2]fumarate can be used to investigate phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, a key regulatory enzyme in gluconeogenesis.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are essential cellular metabolites widely implicated in many diseases including cancer, inflammation, and cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disorders. Yet, ROS signaling remains poorly understood, and their measurements are a challenge due to high reactivity and instability. Here, we report the development of 13C-thiourea as a probe to detect and measure H2O2dynamics with high sensitivity and spatiotemporal resolution using hyperpolarized 13C magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging. In particular, we show 13C-thiourea to be highly polarizable and to possess a long spin–lattice relaxation time (T1), which enables real-time monitoring of ROS-mediated transformation. We also demonstrate that 13C-thiourea reacts readily with H2O2to give chemically distinguishable products in vitroand validate their detection in vivoin a mouse liver. This study suggests that 13C-thiourea is a promising agent for noninvasive detection of H2O2in vivo. More broadly, our findings outline a viable clinical application for H2O2detection in patients with a range of diseases.