Abstract
In recent years, advances in metabolic imaging have become dependable tools for the diagnosis and treatment assessment in cancer. Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) has recently emerged as a promising technology in hyperpolarized (HP) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and has reached clinical relevance with the successful visualization of [1-13C] pyruvate as a molecular imaging probe in human prostate cancer. This review focuses on introducing representative compounds relevant to metabolism that are characteristic of cancer tissue: aerobic glycolysis and pyruvate metabolism, glutamine addiction and glutamine/glutamate metabolism, and the redox state and ascorbate/dehydroascorbate metabolism. In addition, a brief introduction of probes that can be used to trace necrosis, pH changes, and other pathways relevant to cancer is presented to demonstrate the potential that HP MRI has to revolutionize the use of molecular imaging for diagnosis and assessment of treatments in cancer.
Highlights
Since the hallmark discovery of the Warburg effect in cancer cells in the 1920s, it has been widely accepted that the metabolic properties of cancer cells are vastly different from those of normal cells [1]
This can be extended to magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy (MRS), which can further differentiate between less abundant, carbon-bearing, biological metabolites in vivo utilizing 1Hs of these compounds [6, 7]
The focus of this review is to introduce representative compounds relevant to metabolism that are characteristic of cancer tissue and have been applied in the work of multiple groups: aerobic glycolysis, glutamine addiction, and the redox state
Summary
Since the hallmark discovery of the Warburg effect in cancer cells in the 1920s, it has been widely accepted that the metabolic properties of cancer cells are vastly different from those of normal cells [1]. Pyruvate has been the preferred probe for HP MRS research since it is an intermediate metabolite in pathways characteristic of aberrant metabolism in cancer cells, including increased lactate production as a result of aerobic glycolysis where detection of HP pyruvate-derived lactate can be used as a marker for cancer and response to treatment [30, 31] as well as an intermediate in amino acid metabolism (e.g., interconversion to alanine via transamination with glutamate) (Fig. 1).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
