Deuterated Metabolic Imaging (DMI)
The first experiments with DMI were done in the 1980s but were overshadowed by other nuclei until 2018. DMI has garnered much interest since then because of its ability to study metabolism in three dimensions in a noninvasive manner using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). DMI takes advantage of endogenous enzymes converting a deuterium-labeled substrate (probe) into down-stream deuterated metabolites that may be spectroscopically distinguished from the substrate and other metabolites when the labeled metabolites have sufficiently different chemical shifts. Measuring relative peak areas for the metabolites using the 2H spectra gives localized information about flux through metabolic pathways of interest. This flux information may potentially be indicative of disease status. A great example is the Warburg effect in cancer metabolism and measuring the conversion of glucose-6,6-D2 into deuterated lactate, glutamine, and glutamate. Some of the main advantages that deuterium has over other nuclei MRS is the extremely low natural abundance, a short T1 that allows for rapid pulsing, and it does not require compensating for background signals.
Eurisotop offers the largest range of deuterated products for DMI. Most of these products are available in multiple grades of material and normally from inventory. If there is a probe of interest and it is not found in Eurisotop’s current listing, please let us know and we would be happy to consider adding the probe to the listing.
