Abstract #0941

Combined Off-Resonance Imaging & Relaxation in the Rotating Frame for Positive Contrast Imaging of Infection in a Murine Burn Model Testing a Novel Anti-Infective Compound

Valeria Righi^1,2, Melissa Starkey³, Jianxin He³, George Dai², Vitaliano Tugnoli⁴, Laurence G. Rahme³, Ronald G. Tompkins⁵, Aria A. Tzika^1,2

¹Department of Surgery, NMR Surgical Laboratory, MGH & Shriners Burn Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; ²Department of Radiology, Athinoula A. Martinos Center of Biomedical Imaging, Boston, MA, United States; ³Department of Surgery, Molecular Surgery Laboratory, MGH & Shriners Burn Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; ⁴Departement of Biochemistry, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; ⁵Department of Surgery, MGH & Shriners Burn Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States

We demonstrated the feasibility to monitor inhibition of infection in a clinically relevant mouse model of infection after burn. Our results show that our novel compound M50 attenuates the signals coming from macrophages that accumulate at the infection site and thus support the compounds anti-infective action. These results may have direct implications in the longitudinal monitoring of infection, and open perspectives for testing our novel anti-virulence compounds.