Abstract #0149

NaSA-CEST MRI: comparison with Gd-enhanced contrast for imaging brain inflammation

Xiaolei Song^1,2, Yanrong Chen^1,3, Chenwang Jin^1,2, Tao Liu^1,2, Chengyan Chu^1,2, Yuguo Li¹, Yue Yuan^1,2, Xiaowei He³, Piotr Walczak^1,2, and Jeff WM Bulte^1,2

¹Russell H. Morgan Dept. of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States, ²Cellular Imaging Section, Institute for Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States, ³Dept. of Information Sciences and Technology, Northwest University, Xi'an, China

Sodium salicylate (NaSA), a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug and the main metabolite of aspirin, accumulates specifically in inflamed tissue. Since NaSA can be detected with CEST-MRI at millimolar concentrations, we investigated the use of NaSA-enhanced CEST MRI for in vivo mapping of brain inflammation, induced by intracerebral injection of lipopolysaccharide in mice. NaSA-CEST shows signal enhancement in the inflamed LPS-injected hemisphere, which was not observed in two control groups. NaSA-CEST exhibits distinct signal kinetics and enhanced regions from that of Gd-enhanced MRI, and shows correlations with histological staining of inflammatory markers, indicating its potential as a new platform for imaging neuroinflammation.

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