Detection of Early Response to Proteasome Inhibitor Treatment in a Rat Glioma Model with Amide Proton Transfer (APT) Imaging

¹Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; ²F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA; ³Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

Amide proton transfer (APT) imaging detects endogenous mobile proteins and peptides in tissue using the chemical exchange-dependent saturation transfer (CEST) sensitivity enhancement mechanism. We here show initial results demonstrating that APT has potential as an early marker for visualizing changes in cellular protein properties in vivo associated with tumor chemotherapy using proteasome inhibitors.