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University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Investigating The Metabolic Progression of Glioblastoma With Hyperpolarized Magnetic Resonance

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p>Rapid diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring of aggressive diseases such as glioblastoma (GBM) can improve patient survival by providing physicians the time to optimally deliver treatment. This includes early in development, while the tumor is still manageable, or following initial therapy, when alternative treatments should be considered. The main goal of this project was to determine whether metabolic imaging with hyperpolarized magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) could detect changes in tumor progression more rapidly than conventional anatomic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patient-derived GBM murine models. To comprehensively capture the dynamic nature of cancer metabolism, <em>in vivo</em> pyruvate-to-lactate conversion with hyperpolarized MRI, <em>ex vivo </em>metabolite pool size with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and <em>ex vivo </em>protein expression with immunohistochemistry (IHC) were measured at several time-points throughout tumor progression (tumor development, regression, and recurrence).</p> <p>Hyperpolarized MRS was capable of detecting significant changes in pyruvate-to-lactate conversion throughout tumor progression, whereas tumor volume measured with anatomic MRI was not significantly altered during regression or recurrence. This was accompanied by alterations in amino acid and phospholipid lipid metabolism and MCT1 expression. It is discussed how hyperpolarized MRS can help address clinical challenges such as identifying malignant disease prior to aggressive growth, differentiating pseudoprogression from true progression, quantifying treatment response, and predicting relapse. The individual evolution of these metabolic assays as well as their correlations with one another provides context for further academic research.</p> <p>In addition to investigating GBM tumor progression, preliminary and supporting metabolic profiling data acquired with NMR spectroscopy is presented in the context of immunometabolism. Specifically, metabolic events associated with the licensing process of natural killer cells as well as macrophage polarization are analyzed. Collectively, this work demonstrates the value of interrogating the metabolism of GBM and tumor-associated immune cells with hyperpolarized MRS and NMR spectroscopy.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Level thesis:degree_level
Dissertation (PhD)
Year dc:date.available
2020

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Authors dc:creator
  • Salzillo, Travis
  • <p>0000-0001-6271-9879</p>
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Pratip Bhattacharya, PhD
  • Ho-Ling Anthony Liu, PhD
  • Richard Wendt, PhD

Subjects

dc:subject × 18

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu:utgsbs_dissertations-2084

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Base URL
digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Salzillo, Travis; <p>0000-0001-6271-9879</p>. Investigating The Metabolic Progression of Glioblastoma With Hyperpolarized Magnetic Resonance. Dissertation (PhD) thesis, 2020. https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/utgsbs_dissertations/1032