Deuterium metabolic imaging of early response to targeted therapy in pediatric brain tumors.

Motivation: Diffuse midline gliomas (DMGs) are devastating pediatric brain tumors. Although MRI is the mainstay for DMG imaging, it does not reliably report on response to therapy. Goal(s): The goal of this study was to assess the utility of deuterium metabolic imaging for DMGs. Approach: To this end, we interrogated [6,6’-2H]-glucose metabolism in patient-derived and syngeneic models. Results: [6,6’-2H]-glucose enables non-invasive visualization of the metabolically active tumor lesion in mice bearing intracranial DMGs. Importantly, [6,6’-2H]-glucose provides an early readout of response to targeted therapy in vivo. Collectively, our studies highlight the potential of [6,6’-2H]-glucose for imaging tumor burden and response to therapy in DMGs. Impact: Diffuse midline gliomas are deadly childhood brain tumors. Using clinically relevant patient-derived and murine tumor models, we show that deuterium metabolic imaging using [6,6’-2H]-glucose enables non-invasive assessment of tumor burden and early response to therapy in diffuse midline gliomas.