Monitoring intranasal treatment to brain tumor using multiple CEST contrasts

Motivation: Theranostic application of intranasal drug delivery to glioblastoma using multiple CEST contrast.Goal(s): Our goal is to monitor the drug delivery to brain tumor and evaluate the treatment effect simultaneously. Approach: We investigated the imaging of liposome-based drug delivery to the brain tumor via intranasal administration,in which the amount of liposome and the tumor response can be detected by CEST MRI at 3T. Results: CEST contrast at 3.5ppm of tumor region and the tumor size comparison between treatment and control group could indicate the therapeutic effect.CEST contrast at 4.3and-3.5ppm from pre-injection to post-injection in-vivo,could indicate the liposome drug delivery efficacy and drug distribution. Impact: CEST MRI guided intranasal drug delivery could provide valuable information for assessing efficacy of drug delivery and treatment outcome. This can potentially translate to clinics as a non-invasive theranostic approach for glioblastoma treatment.