Abstract 1857: Early detection of pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasms (PanINs) in transgenic mouse model by hyperpolarized 13C metabolic magnetic resonance imaging
Authors: Dutta Prasanta , Zhang Yu , Zoltan Michelle , Mascaro Marilina , Riquelme Erick , Lee Jaehyuk , Maitra Anirban , McAllister Florencia , Bhattacharya Pratip 
Published: July 2017

Pancreatic cancer, one of the most lethal solid tumors, is an aggressive disease that develops relatively symptom-free. Pre-invasive pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasias (PanINs) have been identified as precursor lesions to pancreatic cancer. While there is growing evidence supporting PanIN's genetic links to pancreatic cancer, there is no non-invasive method to detect them. There is an unmet need of novel strategies for detection of pancreatic cancer at the earliest stages, preferably at the stage of PanINs. Hyperpolarized magnetic resonance imaging (HP-MRI) has shown potential for early detection of cancers and monitoring therapeutic efficacy. Here we have employed in-vivo 13C pyruvate metabolic imaging and ex-vivo nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) metabolomics to identify and understand metabolic changes, to enable detection of early PanINs and its progression to advanced PanINs and pancreatic cancer. Genetically engineered mouse (GEM) models with progression of PanIN lesions and control animals, with no pancreatic lesions, were employed in this study. Hyperpolarization of pyruvate and in-vivo 13C MRS were performed using Hypersense (Oxford Instruments) and 7T MRI scanner with a dual tuned 1H/13C volume coil respectively. Tissue alanine and lactate concentrations were determined using a Bruker 500 MHz NMR spectrometer coupled with cryo-probe. Histology and immunohistochemistry were performed on excised tissue samples. P48Cre mice were used as controls and P48Cre;LSLKrasG12D mice were used for detection of early and advanced PanINs, which usually develop in these mice between 12 and 20 months. The imaging experiments were performed at the different stages of the disease. Progression of disease from tissue containing predominantly low-grade PanINs to tissue with high-grade PanINs showed a decreasing alanine/lactate concentration ratio. Real time in-vivo 13C MRS was used to measure non-invasively changes of alanine and lactate metabolites with disease progression and in control mice, following injection of hyperpolarized pyruvate. The alanine-to-lactate (Ala/Lac) signal intensity ratio was found decreased as the disease progressed from low-grade PanINs to high-grade PanINs. These results demonstrate that there are significant alterations of alanine transaminase (ALT) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activities which favor the transformation of aggressive pancreatic cancer from PanINs lesion. Our results suggest that real-time conversion kinetic rate constants kPA(pyruvate-to-alanine) and kPL(pyruvate-to-lactate) can be used as metabolic imaging biomarkers for assessing the early stage of pancreatic diseases. Findings from this highly promising HP-MRI technique could be rapidly translated to the clinic for early detection of pancreatic cancer in patients at high risk for developing the disease.

Citation Format: Prasanta Dutta, Yu Zhang, Michelle Zoltan, Marilina Mascaro, Erick Riquelme, Jaehyuk Lee, Anirban Maitra, Florencia McAllister, Pratip Bhattacharya. Early detection of pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasms (PanINs) in transgenic mouse model by hyperpolarized 13C metabolic magnetic resonance imaging [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1857. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-1857