Monitoring enzyme activity using a diamagnetic chemical exchange saturation transfer MRI contrast agent

摘要

Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST) is a new approach to generate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast that allows monitoring of protein properties in vivo. In this method, radiofrequency is used to saturate the magnetization of specific protons on a target molecule, where it is then transferred to water protons via chemical exchange and detected using MRI. One advantage of CEST imaging is that the magnetization of the different protons can be specifically saturated at different resonance frequencies. This enables the detection of multiple targets simultaneously in living tissue. We present here a CEST MRI approach to detect the activity of Cytosine Deaminase (CDase), an enzyme that catalyzes the deamination of cytosine to uracil. Our findings suggest that metabolism of two substrates of the enzyme, cytosine and 5-fluorocytosine (5FC), can be detected using saturation pulses targeted specifically to protons at +2 ppm and +2.4 ppm (with respect to water), respectively. Indeed, after deamination by recombinant CDase, the CEST contrast disappears. In addition, expression of the enzyme in three different cell lines, each with different expression levels of CDase, show good agreement with the CDase activity measured with CEST MRI. Consequently, CDase activity was imaged with high-resolution CEST-MRI. These data demonstrate the ability to detect enzyme activity based on proton exchange. Consequently, CEST MRI has the potential to follow the kinetics of multiple enzymes in real-time in living tissue.