A novel MRI contrast is proposed which enables the selective detection of endogenous bulk mobile proteins in vivo. Such a non-invasive imaging technique may be of particular interest for many diseases associated with pathological alterations of protein expression, such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. Specificity to mobile proteins was achieved by the selective measurement of intramolecular spin diffusion and the removal of semi-solid macromolecular signal components by a correction procedure. For this purpose, the approach of chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) was extended to a radiofrequency (RF) irradiation scheme at two different frequency offsets (dualCEST). Using protein model solutions, it was demonstrated that the dualCEST technique allows the calculation of an image contrast which is exclusively sensitive to changes in concentration, molecular size and the folding state of mobile proteins. With respect to application in humans, dualCEST overcomes the selectivity limitations at relatively low magnetic field strengths, and thus enables examinations on clinical MR scanners. The feasibility of dualCEST examinations in humans was verified by a proof-of-principle examination of a brain tumor patient at 3 T. With its specificity for the mobile fraction of the proteome, its comparable sensitivity to conventional water proton MRI and its applicability to clinical MR scanners, this technique represents a further step towards the non-invasive imaging of proteomic changes in humans.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 22 May 2023.
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#9,942,949
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#478
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Outputs of similar age
#135,907
of 346,615 outputs
Outputs of similar age from NMR in Biomedicine
#5
of 30 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 29,961,645 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 66th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,073 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 3.5. This one has done well, scoring higher than 76% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 30 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 83% of its contemporaries.
