# 2D MR Correlational Spectroscopy Platform for Molecular and Genetic Characterizations of Glioma

> **NIH NIH R01** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $436,882

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY With the growing emphases and clinical needs for molecular and genetic based
diagnosis and treatment monitoring, both academic programs and scanner manufactures are making
significant effort to improve and innovate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS)
methods for interrogating metabolic functions and abnormalities in patients. Diffuse infiltrating low grade
gliomas (LGG) are among the most lethal cancers and present great challenges in diagnosis and treatment, as
they vary considerably in morphology, location, genetic alterations and response to therapy. One major
challenge in the clinical management of LGG patients is the lack of accurate and non-invasive methods to
stratify patients by tumor subtype to help with early diagnosis, individualized treatment and longitudinal clinical
management. The discovery of heterozygous mutations in the isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH1 and IDH2)
genes in up to 70 % of LGG and secondary glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) links genetic alterations to tumor
metabolism, prognosis and responses to treatment. IDH mutations lead to a neofunction of catalyzing the
NADP-dependent reduction of α-ketoglutarate to oncometabolite R(-)-2-hydroxyglutarate, (2-HG). These
important findings are changing the clinical paradigm of managing gliomas, if given the ability of detecting and
measuring 2-HG to identify IDH mutation-bearing tumors, predict the prognosis, define subset-specific
treatments and monitor therapeutic response. Our early study found the unique MR spectroscopic signature of
2-HG, which allowed us to establish 2-HG as a biomarker of IDH mutations with potential to quantify 2-HG in
brain tumor patients using a spatially localized two-dimensional (2D) correlation spectroscopy (COSY) MRS
method. This new strategy for detecting 2-HG can overcome the limitation of conventional 1D J-coupling
editing MRS approaches in resolving 2-HG and other metabolites of interest. Investigators at Emory University
in partnership with engineers from Siemens MR R&D are proposing to develop and implement a 2D COSY
platform on the clinical scanner for non-invasive genetically classifying and characterizing gliomas as well as
potentially monitoring retreatment responses and tumor progression in LGG patients using 2-HG as a
biomarker. This project combines complementary strengths, expertise and resources of Emory and Siemens
with a translational goal to integrate the latest cancer biology and biomarker research and advanced imaging
technology to provide a paradigm shifting imaging tool for clinical management of brain tumors. The specific
aims are: 1) to develop a sensitivity enhancing strategy with the latest 64-channel coil array and a novel coil
proximity weighted parallel MR spectroscopy data acquisition and combination for 2D COSY; 2) to test,
optimize and implement the developed method and to develop in-line data processing toolbox for processing
and analyzing 2D COSY data on the clinical scanner; and 3) to...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9912115
- **Project number:** 5R01CA203388-04
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Zahra Hosseini
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $436,882
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-04-01 → 2023-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9912115

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9912115, 2D MR Correlational Spectroscopy Platform for Molecular and Genetic Characterizations of Glioma (5R01CA203388-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9912115. Licensed CC0.

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