This proposal will continue the development of an innovative MRI method that can measure the extracellular pH (pHe) of the tumor microenvironment. Our MRI method uses Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST) agents that accurately and precisely measure pH. We have used our CEST agents and CEST MRI methods to map tumor pHe in mouse tumor models. We propose to improve the detection sensitivity of CEST MRI to facilitate our pre-clinical studies eventual clinical translation. Our research has strong impact because tumor pHe measurements may be used to predict the effects of weak-base and weak-acid chemotherapies before they are administered to a patient. Tumor pHe measurements may also be used to monitor alkalinizing therapies that can increase survival and decrease metastasis. We propose to establish that our CEST MRI method can measure tumor pHe with sufficient accuracy and precision to impact the choice of cancer therapies.
Specific Aim 1 : To improve the detection sensitivity of CEST MRI methods and CEST agents that measure tumor pHe. We will optimize the saturation period of the CEST MRI pulse sequence, and improve our paramagnetic CEST agents to have larger chemical shifts.
Specific Aim 2 : To monitor the effect of alkalinizing therapy using tumor pHe measurements. We hypothesize that monitoring pHe can be used to optimize the dose of an alkalinizing therapy to raise tumor pHe without affecting kidney pHe.
Specific Aim 3 : To quantitatively predict chemotherapeutic effects with tumor pHe measurements. We hypothesize that a single tumor pHe measurement before initiating chemotherapy can quantitatively predict the therapeutic effect on tumor growth. Our deliverable is a clinically-translatable imaging method that can profoundly impact personalized medicine. By quantitatively measuring the acidity of a solid tumor, a physician may then select the weak-base or weak- acid chemotherapy that should have a better therapeutic effect for that individual patient. By monitoring the pHe of the tumor and kidney, a physician may adjust an alkalinizing treatment dosage to provide an optimal therapeutic effect for an individual patient. Although our research focuses on breast cancer, our methodology can impact personalized medicine for many other cancers and other pathologies.

Public Health Relevance

This research project will refine CEST agents and CEST MRI methods that measure extracellular pH (pHe) in pre-clinical tumor models. These methods will be used to optimize the dose of an alkalinizing therapy and to predict the efficacy of weak-base and weak-acid chemotehrapies.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01CA167183-04
Application #
8817152
Study Section
Clinical Molecular Imaging and Probe Development (CMIP)
Program Officer
Zhang, Huiming
Project Start
2012-04-01
Project End
2016-02-28
Budget Start
2015-03-01
Budget End
2016-02-28
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2015
Total Cost
$393,301
Indirect Cost
$132,352
Name
University of Arizona
Department
Biomedical Engineering
Type
Schools of Engineering
DUNS #
806345617
City
Tucson
State
AZ
Country
United States
Zip Code
85721
Goldenberg, Joshua M; Pagel, Mark D; Cárdenas-Rodríguez, Julio (2018) Characterization of D-maltose as a T2 -exchange contrast agent for dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI. Magn Reson Med 80:1158-1164
Lindeman, Leila R; Randtke, Edward A; High, Rachel A et al. (2018) A comparison of exogenous and endogenous CEST MRI methods for evaluating in vivo pH. Magn Reson Med 79:2766-2772
Jones, Kyle M; Pollard, Alyssa C; Pagel, Mark D (2018) Clinical applications of chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) MRI. J Magn Reson Imaging 47:11-27
Hupple, Clinton W; Morscher, Stefan; Burton, Neal C et al. (2018) A light-fluence-independent method for the quantitative analysis of dynamic contrast-enhanced multispectral optoacoustic tomography (DCE MSOT). Photoacoustics 10:54-64
Jones, Kyle M; Pagel, Mark D; Cárdenas-Rodríguez, Julio (2018) Linearization improves the repeatability of quantitative dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI. Magn Reson Imaging 47:16-24
Goldenberg, Joshua M; Cárdenas-Rodríguez, Julio; Pagel, Mark D (2018) Preliminary Results that Assess Metformin Treatment in a Preclinical Model of Pancreatic Cancer Using Simultaneous [18F]FDG PET and acidoCEST MRI. Mol Imaging Biol 20:575-583
Randtke, Edward A; Granados, Jeffry C; Howison, Christine M et al. (2017) Multislice CEST MRI improves the spatial assessment of tumor pH. Magn Reson Med 78:97-106
Yoshimaru, Eriko S; Randtke, Edward A; Pagel, Mark D et al. (2016) Design and optimization of pulsed Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer MRI using a multiobjective genetic algorithm. J Magn Reson 263:184-192
Akhenblit, Paul J; Hanke, Neale T; Gill, Alexander et al. (2016) Assessing Metabolic Changes in Response to mTOR Inhibition in a Mantle Cell Lymphoma Xenograft Model Using AcidoCEST MRI. Mol Imaging 15:
Hingorani, Dina V; Montano, Luis A; Randtke, Edward A et al. (2016) A single diamagnetic catalyCEST MRI contrast agent that detects cathepsin B enzyme activity by using a ratio of two CEST signals. Contrast Media Mol Imaging 11:130-8

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