Review Imaging of Thromboinflammation by Multispectral 19F MRI, 2025, Temme et al.

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Imaging of Thromboinflammation by Multispectral 19F MRI
Temme, Sebastian; Kleimann, Patricia; Tiren, Zeynep-Büsra; Bouvain, Pascal; Zielinski, Arthur; Dollmeyer, William; Poth, Sarah; Görges, Juliana; Flögel, Ulrich

The close interplay between thrombotic and immunologic processes plays an important physiological role in the immune defence after tissue injury and has the aim to reduce damage and to prevent the spread of invading pathogens. However, the uncontrolled or exaggerated activation of these processes can lead to pathological thromboinflammation. Thromboinflammation has been shown to worsen the outcome of cardiovascular, autoinflammatory, or even infectious diseases.

Imaging of thromboinflammation is difficult because many clinically relevant imaging techniques can only visualize either inflammatory or thrombotic processes. One interesting option for the noninvasive imaging of thromboinflammation is multispectral 19F magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Due to the large chemical shift range of the 19F atoms, it is possible to simultaneously visualize immune cells as well as thrombus components with specific 19F tracer that have individual spectral 19F signatures. Of note, the 19F signal can be easily quantified and a merging of the 19F datasets with the anatomical 1H MRI images enables precise anatomical localization.

In this review, we briefly summarize the background of 19F MRI for inflammation imaging, active targeting approaches to visualize thrombi and specific immune cells, introduce studies about multispectral 19F MRI, and summarize one study that imaged thromboinflammation by multispectral 19F MRI.

Link | PDF (International Journal of Molecular Sciences) [Open Access]

 

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Most of the 19F MRI studies have been performed for preclinical research, but some studies have been conducted under clinical conditions. […] There are still many challenges and pitfalls that must be overcome to enable the clinical application of 19F MRI […]. These comprise the imaging hardware, the pulse sequences, the formulation and the dosing of the 19F tracer and also the specific clinical applications where 19F MRI can be beneficial for the medical personnel for diagnosis or decision making.

Nevertheless, we believe that 19F MRI and, in particular, multispectral 19F MRI is a powerful molecular imaging tool that can be used to study multiple biological processes simultaneously with high specificity and quantitative accuracy. This technology is of high value for preclinical studies because it provides a large amount of additional locoregional information. Repetitive MRI measurements make it possible to follow and monitor the course of a disease (and its therapy) in the same animal over time, which enhances the reliability of the datasets and reduces animal numbers (3R principle). Furthermore, multispectral 19F MRI of thromboinflammation could also be important for clinical decision making.