Distinct Amino Acid Profiles in IDH Wild-Type and IDH-Mutant Glioma Subregions: In Vivo 1H MRSI with Optimized Long-TE sLASER at 3T

Motivation: Reprogramming of amino acid (AA) metabolism is important in glioma formation and growth. The AA pool could provide potential markers for diagnosis, prognosis, and personalized care based on patients' unique tumor metabolic profiles. Goal(s): To develop an MRSI protocol at 3T with clinically-feasible acquisition time to quantify/map AA metabolism in glioma subregions in IDH-wildtype and IDH-mutated glioma. Approach: We measured 30 patients with suspected glioma using a long-TE sLASER MRSI protocol and performed automated brain tumor segmentation. Metabolite maps were analyzed taking tumor subregions into account. Results: Distinct spectral patterns and AA maps between glioma subtypes were observed. Impact: We used optimized long-TE-sLASER MRSI at 3T and automated brain tumor segmentation to evaluate distinct amino acid profiles in glioma molecular subtypes. Our study highlights the necessity for separate (e.g., glutamate-glutamine, glycine-myoinositol) and tumor-subregion-specific quantification of metabolites.