Target Audience

This talk will be of interest for a wide scientific community including researchers working in areas of molecular imaging, development of targeted imaging probes, and experimental disease models, as well as for translational scientists.

Objectives

The main objective of the presentation is providing the current state of molecular MRI and specifically smart MR imaging agents in assessing response to treatment in preclinical experimental models as well as discussing potential translation to clinical studies.

Methods

We will review current MRI techniques, which can be used to generate contrast in images and major classes of imaging agent used by these techniques. Specific disease models including cancer, brain, and cardiovascular will be presented and discussed. A concise comparison of MRI with other noninvasive imaging types and the role of multimodality imaging will be presented. Inherent strengths and potential limitations of different imaging modalities will be examined. Specifically, we will emphasize detection sensitivity, contrast to background ratio, and specificity of the selective uptake and/or activation as critical parameters for successful in vivo applications. Quantitative imaging provides multiple benefits for diagnostics of diseases and for monitoring therapeutic responses by defining quantitative metrics for analysis. As applied to MRI, both quantitative measuring of the contrast and linearity of the contrast enhancement are significant problems, which we will try to address in this presentation. Perspectives and potential hurdles for future clinical translation of the newly developed smart MR probes will also be discussed.

Discussion and Conclusion

In this presentation we will summarize the current state of molecular MRI using biologically active and/or targeted “smart” imaging agents to detect treatment response in several preclinical models of human diseases including cancer. Both methodological and biological aspects of the MR imaging strategies will be considered. We anticipate that by the end of the talk the audience should have improved understanding and appreciation of mechanisms and applications of novel state-of-the-art MRI imaging agents to various disease processes in preclinical models.

Acknowledgements

Grant support from NIH RO1 CA209884 and DOD W81XWH-16-1-0595 for this contribution is acknowledged