Development of deuterium metabolic imaging to map body biochemistry with MRI

The global obesity epidemic has resulted in a dramatic rise in metabolic diseases and the development of effective therapies has greatly lagged behind. This could arguably be attributed to a lack of non-invasive (imaging) techniques to characterize disturbances in metabolic pathways. We will investigate the use of dynamic deuterium metabolic imaging (DMI) to dynamically map body biochemistry in humans in 3D imaging mode. DMI relies on deuterium magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging combined with oral administration of deuterium-labeled compounds. The innovation idea is linked to the MCUBE project of FET-OPEN-01-2016-2017. Here a dual-dipole coil was designed for hydrogen MRI at 7 tesla (300 MHz), which outperformed the state-of-the-art setup of the loop-dipole coil for MRI. The new design is transparent to loop designs, meaning that the setup can be combined with loop coils, which are known to be the optimal setup for low frequency operation. So for DMI, which operates at 45.7 MHz (low frequency) at 7 tesla, an MRI coil array can be designed that not only outperforms MRI, but also enables DMI at uncompromised sensitivity within the same scan session, which will complement the utilization of the MCUBE project. The objectives of the project are: (1) Build and test a body DMI setup for a clinical ultra-high field 7 tesla MRI scanner; (2) demonstrate proof of concept to measure hepatic carbohydrate and lipid metabolism with DMI; and (3) apply DMI in a clinical feasibility study in type 2 diabetes patients. Upon successful completion of the project, DMI will be valorized by the commercial partners and embedded in clinical practice, which opens up a new window for drug studies to directly image their chemical efficacy. Besides its application in metabolic diseases, DMI has potential to detect organ failure, drug toxicity and effects of cancer treatment in a much earlier stage than morphological imaging.