September 7, 2020
On September 3, 2020 an author’s manuscript on results of the hyperpolarization of fumarate was published to the pre-print repository ChemRxiv.
The author’s manuscript is titled “Rapid Hyperpolarization and Purification of the Metabolite Fumarate in Aqueous Solution” and has yet to undergo peer-review prior to publication in a journal. However, the manuscript with work from UNITO has been published under open access already.
Abstract
Hyperpolarized fumarate is a promising agent for carbon-13 magnetic resonance metabolic imaging of cellular necrosis. Molecular imaging applications require nuclear hyperpolarization to attain sufficient signal strength. Dissolution dynamic nuclear polarization is the current state-of-the-art methodology for hyperpolarizing fumarate, but this is expensive and relatively slow. Alternatively, this important biomolecule can be hyperpolarized in a cheap and convenient manner using parahydrogen-induced polarization. However, this process requires a chemical reaction, and the resulting hyperpolarized fumarate solutions are contaminated with the catalyst, unreacted reagents, and reaction side product molecules, and are hence unsuitable for use in vivo. In this work we show that the hyperpolarized fumarate can be purified from these contaminants by acid precipitation as a pure solid, and later redissolved at a chosen concentration in a clean aqueous solvent. Significant advances in the reaction conditions and reactor equipment allow us to form hyperpolarized fumarate at a concentration of several hundred millimolar, at 13C polarization levels of 30-45%.
