Periodic Reporting for period 3 - HyperULFNMR (Hyperpolarized ultra-low field (ULF) magnetic resonance to design next generation functional contrast agents)
Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-06-30
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in our society. New methods to diagnose and to assess treatment promise to benefits patients health and increase life expectancy. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful technique used in hospitals all over the world to assess cancer. Although it is a widespread technique it is inherently insensitive. To circumvent this, hyperpolarization approaches have been devised to boost magnetic resonance signals by several orders of magnitude. Hyperpolarization has been shown to allow for the enhancement of metabolites that can then directly be used to monitor biochemical conversion in vivo in real-time with the hope to improve cancer imaging. The proposed research aims at developing new contrast agents that can be hyperpolarized and particular be used in portable magnetic resonance devices. This would improve access to MRI on the world for new cancer screenings and early diagnosis. Ultimately, this will benefit patients all around the world.
The overall objective of the project is to discover suitable molecules that extend the capabilities of hyperpolarized magnetic resonance in particular for the use in portable low field devices.
The overall objective of the project is to discover suitable molecules that extend the capabilities of hyperpolarized magnetic resonance in particular for the use in portable low field devices.
Since the beginning of the project a variety of molecules have been synthesized that are metabolically active and could be hyperpolarize with a rapid approach using a special form of hydrogen in less than one minute. The state-of-the-art technology requires 10s of minutes to hours for a similar process. In particular, we focused on investigating cancer cells at first to show that the obtained hyperpolarized compounds are converted into the downstream metabolites. In a next step we could show that the technology is even applicable for tumor imaging and to monitor metabolism in brain and liver.
As further steps we are now working on extending the lifetimes of the hyperpolarized tracers. The molecules that we have investigated so far have shown to be traceable for only a few minutes. The overall aim is to obtain potential contrast agents that are traceable for more than 10 minutes in low magnetic fields to surpass the state-of-the-art and to introduce a new concept for future medical applications.